Gherson are delighted to announce another successful application to INTERPOL on behalf of one of our clients.
Renato Usatîi, the leader of ‘Our Party’, a major opposition party in Moldova, and the incumbent mayor of Moldova’s second largest city, had led a prominent cross-party opposition movement against the political elite in Moldova since 2014. However, after making a series of high profile public disclosures of information regarding what he saw as endemic corruption at the highest levels in Moldovan politics Usatîi came under extraordinary pressure to leave politics. Having declined these offers he found himself targeted by a series of politically motivated criminal allegations.
These allegations were accompanied by a virulent media campaign against him and his party and ultimately led to an INTERPOL Diffusion (similar to a Red Notice) being issued in our client’s name whilst he was outside Moldova. In early 2017 we were instructed by Usatîi to lodge a formal challenge to the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files.
The case was extraordinarily complex involving two extremely serious allegations alleging criminal conduct in multiple jurisdictions internationally.
Within a week of lodging our application we secured the temporary suspension of the Diffusion as an interim measure pending the resolution of the full application. The case was considered at length over the course of three scheduled meetings of the Commission over the course of over 12 months. There were numerous developments in the case over the course of the year and several further submissions were made to the Commission.
On 24 May 2018 the Commission finally reached its decision in our client’s case and the General Secretariat of INTERPOL deleted the Diffusion against our client on the grounds that there was a predominantly political dimension to the case and that the Diffusion was not compliant with Article 3 of INTERPOL’s Constitution which prohibits INTERPOL from acting in politically motivated cases.
Ordinarily our firm does not publicise the details of its clients or successes but our client has specifically requested that we make the decision of the Commission public given the level of negative media he has faced as a result of these politically motivated allegations.
For any enquiries please do not hesitate to contact Gherson.
The information in this blog is for general information purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive or to provide legal advice. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the information and law is current as of the date of publication it should be stressed that, due to the passage of time, this does not necessarily reflect the present legal position. Gherson accepts no responsibility for loss which may arise from accessing or reliance on information contained in this blog. For formal advice on the current law please don’t hesitate to contact Gherson. Legal advice is only provided pursuant to a written agreement, identified as such, and signed by the client and by or on behalf of Gherson.
©Gherson 2018