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Tuesday, Jun 30, 2020

Can Interpol arrest a head of state (or anyone else) based on a request from another country?

Eric Smith, Gigafact Foundry
no

Interpol, the international police organization based in Lyon, France, lacks any arresting authority or mechanism. This is left to individual member states. Interpol may issue what it calls a "red notice" as an international help wanted notice, not an arrest warrant, to identify an individual who is sought by another member country.

In the U.S., the Justice Department does not consider an Interpol notice alone to be sufficient basis for an arrest because in its view it does not meet standards under the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures.

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