Interpol has withdrawn ‘red notice’ for Georgia’s ex-justice minister Zurab Adeishvili, who is wanted by Tbilisi for number of criminal charges, which his allies say are politically motivated.
“On April 9, 2015 the Georgian chief prosecutor’s office was notified by Interpol general secretariat that it has revoked red notice against Zurab Adeishvili,” the Georgian prosecutor’s office said in a statement released on April 14 after it emerged that ‘red notice’ against Adeishvili was taken down from Interpol website and his name removed from its wanted list.
The Georgian prosecutor’s office said that in its notification Interpol cited “granting of a refugee status to Adeishvili by one of the countries” as the reason behind its decision to revoke red notice against Georgia’s ex-justice minister; prosecutor’s office said it does not know which country it was.
It also said that Interpol took the decision without prior informing the Georgian side and therefore the prosecutor’s office was not able “to present its additional arguments” in favor of keeping the red notice against Adeishvili.
Georgia requested Interpol to issue red notice against Adeishvili in January, 2013 after court in Tbilisi ordered pre-trial detention of the ex-justice minister in absentia in connection to charges involving allegations of “organizing inhuman treatment of inmates” in September, 2012. Other criminal charges
Interpol issued red notice against Adeishvili in November, 2013.
Interpol uses red notices to notify its member states that an arrest warrant has been issued for an individual with a view to his or her arrest and extradition. But Interpol cannot demand individual nations make an arrest based on issued red notices.
At the time when the red notice was issued against Adeishvili, he was supposedly in Hungary, where he reportedly already had an asylum.
Recently he has been informally advising Ukrainian authorities on reforms, according to his close allies and former Georgian officials now working in the Ukrainian government.
In February the Georgian prosecutor’s office said that Ukraine had refused Tbilisi’s request to extradite Adeishvili.
Ukraine, whose deputy general prosecutor is a former Georgian lawmaker from UNM party and ex-deputy chief prosecutor of Georgia Davit Sakvarelidze, has also refused to extradite Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili citing that charges against him were politically motivated.
The Georgian prosecutor’s office has been seeking for more than a year, but in vain, for the Interpol red notice to be issued against Saakashvili.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)