Future Interpol boss targeted by British citizen torture charges
Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France (illustrative image).
AP - Laurent Cirpiani
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The Lyon-based international police agency is preparing to elect its new president and an Emirati general is in the process of being appointed.
Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi is indeed the only candidate.
A young British researcher, however, is sounding the alarm: after spending months in prison in the Emirates where he says he was mistreated, he believes that the high-ranking officer was in charge at the time of the facts.
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It was to complete his university work that Matthew Hedges spent a few weeks in the United Arab Emirates in 2018 before
being arrested at the very end of his stay.
“
For seven weeks, I was subjected to very harsh interrogations, sometimes up to 15 hours a day.
Sometimes they would prevent me from sleeping and at other times they would threaten me with physical violence, the
scholar explained.
I could hear people being beaten and tortured in other rooms.
So I was psychologically tortured and told them what they wanted to hear in order to avoid physical torture.
"
Matthew Hedges signs a confession.
He spent more than six months in prison, most often in solitary confinement.
He was finally sentenced to life imprisonment for espionage for the benefit of the United Kingdom
but was immediately pardoned
and could finally return to his country.
Responsibility of the Inspector General of Police
Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi is accused of being responsible for the torture of Matthew Hedges, but also for
the imprisonment of a football fan
.
The latter was imprisoned and tortured for two weeks for wearing a Qatari football shirt.
During his mishap, academic Matthew Hedges was never directly confronted with UAE General al-Raisi.
But for Matthew Hedges, the high-ranking official has the title of Inspector General of Police, that is, he organizes and supervises the security forces of the Emirates.
He was in charge at the time of the facts and therefore necessarily aware.
The Briton does not take offense at the idea of seeing the senior UAE officer take the head of Interpol, an international institution responsible for leading a fight for justice.
Note that the UAE general is already a member of the executive committee of the international police agency, of which he had never run for the direction until then.
A two-thirds majority is required to elect Interpol's new president, which will take place in December.
The current president of the organization is the South Korean Kim Jong-yang.
He took office after the surprise resignation of Chinese Meng Hongwei.
The former deputy security minister had suddenly disappeared during a visit to the country, with authorities in Beijing accusing him of corruption.
Last January, he was sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison.
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