Interpol is not looking for People's Deputy Dubnevich: document

MP Yaroslav Dubnevych, who was put on the international wanted list by the Ukrainian authorities in the "gas case", is not wanted by the International Criminal Police Organization. This is reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to the relevant letter from Interpol, which is at the disposal of lawyer Volodymyr Bohatyry, UNN reports.

In November 2023, the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine put the MP on the international wanted list at the request of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office. He is accused of misappropriating UAH 93 million from PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia and organizing the theft of natural gas from Naftogaz of Ukraine in the amount of UAH 2.2 billion.

In making its decision, the court relied on the defendant's failure to appear at court hearings and the availability of information about his stay abroad. As evidence, the information was presented as if from the system of the official Europol channel Secure Information Exchange Network (SIENA), although the State Border Guard Service did not record Dubnevych's crossing of the state border.

Later, the headquarters of the European Police Office in The Hague reportedthat no data on the MP was being processed by Europol.

"In their relations with international institutions, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies often give out wishful thinking. And thus abuse their rights granted under the relevant agreements. This definitely has a negative impact on the attitude of international organizations towards the Ukrainian judicial and law enforcement systems," says attorney Volodymyr Bogatyr.

According to him, in the case of MP Dubnevych, the artificially created formal grounds for putting him on the wanted list look questionable, especially in a situation where a significant number of MPs are under pressure from criminal prosecution.

As a reminder, Ukraine has the National Central Bureau of Interpol, whose functions are performed by the National Police. As a working apparatus, it is tasked with coordinating law enforcement agencies and interacting with the Interpol General Secretariat and the relevant authorities of member states. This includes sending requests to partners about criminals and wanted persons, as well as receiving and monitoring the implementation of similar requests from abroad.

The main area of cooperation between law enforcement agencies through Interpol is to locate wanted persons. When suspects try to evade justice by hiding abroad, they may be placed on the international wanted list through a so-called red notice. In essence, it is a request to law enforcement agencies around the world to locate and temporarily arrest a person pending extradition or transfer. As a rule, the request is based on a court decision of the country.

"A Red Notice is not a warrant for the arrest of a person. It is only a simultaneous warning to the police of all Interpol member countries about the fact of a wanted person. Therefore, Interpol does not search for people, it cannot force the law enforcement agencies of any country to arrest someone. Each country decides for itself what legal significance it attaches to the red alert and the powers of its law enforcement agencies to implement it," the lawyer added.

In addition, according to Volodymyr Bohatyry, it is important to keep in mind that a member country's request for a red alert is not automatically executed. It is preliminarily reviewed by both the Secretariat and can be preventively blocked by the Interpol File Control Commission, for example, due to non-compliance with the Interpol statute and rules.

According to him, since international search is usually carried out through the channels of Interpol, as the largest international police cooperation organization, the search is not actually carried out at the moment, and the legal grounds for international search are extremely questionable.