Maj. Gen. Dr. Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi was elected head of Interpol Thursday regardless of criticisms of his human rights file. Picture courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Nov. 25 (UPI) — The newly elected head of a worldwide police company has come beneath criticism for turning a blind eye to experiences of torture whereas serving as a common for the United Arab Emirates.
Maj. Gen. Dr. Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi was elected president of Interpol on Thursday with 68.9% of votes forged after three rounds of voting by member international locations throughout a gathering in Istanbul, Turkey. The place is part-time and unpaid.
After his election, Raisi said on Twitter that he would “construct a extra clear, various, and decisive group that works to make sure security for all.”
Throughout the spring, Human Rights Watch and the Gulf Centre for Human Rights spoke out in opposition to Raisi’s candidacy for the place. The teams argued that as inspector common on the UAE Inside Ministry he failed to analyze credible complaints of tortute of and different human rights abuses dedicated by safety forces in opposition to peaceable critics of the federal government.
“A tragic day for human rights and the rule of regulation worldwide, when a consultant of arguably probably the most authoritarian authorities within the Gulf, one which equates peaceable dissent with terrorism, is elected to go the one police group that spans all the globe,” Hiba Zayadin, Human Rights Watch gulf reseacher, said on Twitter following his election.
The UAE pushed again on the criticism. In an announcement to the BBC the nation’s overseas ministry stated Raisi “strongly believes that the abuse or mistreatment by police is abhorrent and insupportable.” In one other assertion, he referred to as the UAE “one of many world’s most secure locations” that continues to be the “most essential pressure for constructive change on the planet’s most tough area.”
Attorneys for the Gulf Centre for Human Rights have just lately introduced authorized actions in opposition to Raisi in Turkey and France, accusing him of being concerned within the illegal arrest and torture of Ahmed Mansoor, a the UAE’s most distinguished human rights activist, the BBC experiences.