The British newspaper The Telegraph opened the black file of the UAE candidate to take over the presidency of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), in the elections scheduled for next December.
According to Al Jazeera Net, the Telegraph revealed – citing leaked documents – that Major General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, inspector general of the UAE Ministry of Interior and Abu Dhabi candidate for the presidency of Interpol, is accused of supervising the “torture” of a British academic and committing serious human rights violations in the Middle East, including violations against British citizens.
The newspaper stated – in a news report published today, Thursday – that INTERPOL is threatened to lose its credibility if Al-Raisi is elected as its president, explaining that it has seen the electoral campaign papers of the “Smiling Brigade” and his academic qualifications, including a diploma in police administration from Cambridge.
She adds: However, a British graduate student alleges that Al-Raisi gave him a mixture of drugs while he was detained in Dubai on espionage charges, while a football fan accused him of being beaten, stabbed and electrocuted with responsibility for his torture. The two men say he should never become president of Interpol.
Matthew Hedges, a doctoral student at the University of Drum, was held in solitary confinement for about 6 months, after he was arrested at Dubai Airport in May 2018 on suspicion of spying for the British Foreign Intelligence (MI6).
Hedges says his phone calls were monitored, he was forced to sign a false confession, and given a combination of high-strength drugs to help him fight the panic attacks and depression from which he is still recovering.
He was sentenced to life in prison after a hearing that lasted only 5 minutes, although the British authorities publicly denied that he was an agent of their intelligence, but a presidential pardon for him was issued later that year following international pressure.
As Inspector General of the Ministry of the Interior, Major General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi is responsible for organizing and managing the security and police forces in the UAE, and British academic Hedges considers him ultimately responsible for his torture and arrest.
The Interpol General Assembly will hold a meeting to elect a new president for the organization in December in the UAE, following the change of the meeting venue from Uruguay. Al Raisi is a member of the Interpol Executive Committee, but he has not been nominated for its presidency.
Ali Ahmed – a British football fan who was arrested for wearing the Qatari national team shirt in one of the Asian Nations Championship matches in the UAE – shares Matthew Hedges’s fear of Al Raisi taking one of the most important positions in an international security organization.
The young British man, Ali Ahmed (26 years), bought a ticket for the Qatar-Iraq match, which took place on January 22, 2019. He spent more than two weeks in prison after being accused of wearing a soccer shirt that promoted the Qatar national team, confirming that he was electrocuted and deprived of food and drink, and was forced He had to sign a confession, and he was not allowed to have a lawyer.
A Telegraph quotes Hedges saying that the next INTERPOL president must be fully aware of the burdens of leadership and respect the rule of law, adding that the UAE police under the leadership of Al-Raisi acted without fear of being held accountable for his and Ali and many other cases, indicating that they would not allow him Headed by INTERPOL.
Hedges and Ali Ahmed sent a letter to INTERPOL Secretary General Juergen Stock to express their concern.
Last year, Hedges confirmed that his experience and his trial in the UAE will not pass like this without accountability, indicating in statements to the Middle East Eye newspaper that he had asked his lawyer to seek the UAE’s recognition of all the inhumane violations that were practiced on him during his imprisonment in the UAE, calling on all countries In the world, it should reconsider its relationship with authoritarian governments, including the UAE government.
Hedges has assigned an international law firm specializing in criminal cases in London to prosecute the UAE authorities due to his exposure to illegal imprisonment in Dubai for nearly 6 months, and accuse him of espionage, indicating that he seeks to prosecute those who caused him this ordeal, and to acquit him of all the charges against him. He was accepted by the UAE authorities, as the UAE authorities released him after coming under British and international pressure, but without clearing him of the charges against him.
