In the beginning of June 2024 the Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Moldova, together with the National Financial Prosecutor's Office of France (Parquet national financier français) and the US Federal Security Service, conducted searches and arrested four representatives of the internal authorities of the Republic of Moldova within the international investigation into attempts to delete the INTERPOL red notices.
The criminal investigation was launched back in August 2023 based on the information received from the INTERPOL Headquarters in Lyon, France. According to publicly available information, a group of individuals of different nationalities are suspected of implementing the corruption scheme that allowed individuals fleeing criminal prosecution to obtain blocking and deletion of red notices registered and processed against them in return for payment of significant amounts of bribes to governmental officials, particularly in Moldova. The searches took place in 33 different locations in Moldova, targeted 12 suspects and led to the arrest of four people being the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moldova, in particular the National Central Bureau of INTERPOL in Moldova and the Asylum Service.
International Police Organization INTERPOL, based in Lyon, France, clarified in a separate statement that "following the detection of an attempted infiltration" in its operations "in a small number of cases" with the purpose to "block and delete red notices", "(INTERPOL) officials took immediate internal measures and reported the facts to the authorities” of France.
INTERPOL also referred to the parallel cybercrime investigation carried out by the British authorities "which established that the individuals suspected of corruption in Moldova may have passed the information about the red notices to wanted individuals."
The above information demonstrates that it is not a good option to consider to obtain information about being searched through the INTERPOL Database, much less to block or to delete a red notice or a diffusion by the illegal means. Due to the fact that the INTERPOL Database is a computerized information system, it is foolish to hope that attempts of illegal operations within this system would go unnoticed. It is to note that not only the individuals having provided the illegal services in Moldova are subject to criminal liability, but also the individuals having paid for such illegal services by giving bribes risk receiving another red notice or diffusion, since giving a bribe is also a crime.
Therefore, in order to avoid negative consequences, it is recommended to lawfully address the INTERPOL authorities both to obtain information about whether the data about a person are processed in the INTERPOL Database, and to delete / correct the data processed in the INTERPOL Database in relation to a person based on a notice or a diffusion. The legal services company of Yegor BOYCHENKO, which has many years of successful experience in working with the INTERPOL authorities, will provide you with high-quality services in this area.
All the States Parties have signed and ratified Protocol No. 15 to the Convention and it will enter into force on 1 August 2021. According to Articles 4 and 8 of Protocol No. 15, from 01 February 2022 the applicants will have only four months to lodge their complaints with the European Court of Human Rights after the exhaustion of domestic remedies at the national level.
An amended version of Rule 47 of the Rules of Court, which sets out the conditions for applying to the Court and for lodging a complete and valid application, came into force on 1 January 2016.