The political stoush surrounding convicted Egyptian asylum seeker Sayed Ahmed Maksoud Abdellatif last week has its roots in the Interpol Red Alert process. At its best it seems to be a lame duck against run-of-the-mill criminals. At its worst it's the dictators' tool for harassing their political opponents. Ironically, I could not find him on the current Interpol's Egypt database.
However, it's not all bad news as the Red Notice Law Journal reported on 6 June 2013:
Readers... know that one of the stories we've been following has been the plight of the non-governmental workers who were charged with crimes related to their journalistic activities in Egypt.
The reason that this story is appropriate for a blog about INTERPOL is that Egypt sought Red Notices for those workers who had left the country prior to the charges being filed. INTERPOL properly rejected Egypt's request for those Red Notices because of the political nature of the charges.
Now we have the disappointing news that 43 NGO workers, both Egyptian and non-Egyptian, have been found guilty of the charges. The story is here.
More on my weblog for Global Voices Online:
Australia: Security Storm Surrounds Convicted Egyptian Asylum Seeker
