Turkish lawyer Gülden Sönmez declared submitting a criminal complaint to the Cheif Public Prosecutor officer today against UAE’s Ahmed Al-Raisi, Candidate for INTERPOL Presidency.
The lawyer’s team announcement of trying the Emirati official comes only a few days before the Interpol General Assembly meetings held in Istanbul.
“He [Al-Raisi] is accused of enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, torture and sexual assault committed under his responsibility and sometimes with his own participation,” the lawyer said in a press statement today. He demanded the arrest of the Emirati official.
Interpol’s General Assembly meetings will take place in Istanbul on 20-25 this month and discuss the nomination of Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi, the top security chief of the United Arab Emirates, as a presidential candidate to Interpol by the UAE.
“The candidacy issue, which is considered as a golden opportunity to launder the UAE’s reputation and cover up its human rights violations due to its systematic accusation of crimes against humanity, has a critical feature for Turkey as well.”
The candidacy of Al-Raisi was followed by widespread human rights resentment and denunciation due to his involvement in the torture and ill-treatment of dozens of human rights defenders, journalists and scientists. The Emirate official is also accused of “racist and hostile tortures of African migrant workers just because of their ideas and even because of their non-criminal tweets, should be brought to the judiciary.”
According to the Turkish national legislation and international law rules, the statement said that Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi must be caught, arrested, and tried in pre-trial detention when he enters Turkey. “According to the articles of the Turkish Penal Code on Crimes Against Humanity and Torture, the Turkish judicial authorities have the authority to try Al Raisi.”
This statement was preceded by several other complaints worldwide. In in early October, he faced opposition with claims submitted to French prosecutors about his responsibility for the alleged torture of two men in UAE custody in 2018 and 2019.
Prior to that, 35 members of the French parliament wrote to President Emmanuel Macron asking him to oppose Al-Raisi’s nomination.
In April, a former director of public prosecutions in the UK also called on Interpol members to reject Al-Raisi’s candidacy in response to alleged human rights violations by the UAE.
In June, a lawyer representing human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor also made a universal jurisdiction complaint against Al-Raisi in France, based on allegations of torture of his client.
