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Kurdish-German fights Iranian Interpol
listing
3.2.2010 |
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February 3, 2010
BERLIN,— An
Iranian-born German citizen is fighting to have his
name removed from Interpol’s most-wanted list after
allegedly being placed there by Iran for his work
with Kurdish activists opposed to the regime in
Tehran.
Mohammad Saleh Sardari, a Kurd who has been a German
citizen for more than 10 years after seeking asylum
in 1991, discovered that his name had been added to
Interpol’s “Red Notice” list last November, he told
The Local on Tuesday.
The 52-year-old Cologne resident stands accused of
having ties to organised crime and being involved in
"transnational crime" by public prosecutors in Iran
along with ten other individuals in Sweden.
According to Interpol,www.ekurd.nettheir
status “requests (provisional) arrest of wanted
persons, with a view to extradition,” which means
the men are unable to travel outside the countries
they live in without risking detainment. |
Mohammad Saleh Sardari, a Kurd who has been a German
citizen for more than 10 years after seeking asylum
in 1991, discovered that his name had been added to
Interpol’s “Red Notice” list last November, |
All of the men deny the
charges, and those in Sweden staged a protest
outside the parliament in Stockholm last Thursday in
hopes of gaining attention for their plight.
“We are together, they are my friends,” Sardari told
The Local, explaining that he belongs to an
opposition party in exile, the Worker-Communist
Party of Iran, or Hekmatist.
“We have fought for 30 years against the Islamic
Republic – fighting for freedom, human rights,
women’s rights, and against executions, stonings and
other injustices.”
Some 30 years ago he was shot in his right leg at a
street protest during the Iranian revolution in the
country’s Kurdistan province, and bullet fragments
still pain him today, Sardari said.
“We are actually the victims of terrorism, but now
unfortunately Interpol has added our names to their
terrorist list,” he said. “I am afraid."
After receiving no response to letters he sent to
Interpol, Cologne police and all of Germany's main
political parties, Sardari sought the help of lawyer
Franz Hess,www.ekurd.netwho
told The Local he has turned to the Federal Criminal
Police Office (BKA) and government data protection
officials to help his client.
“Iran’s registry of their names is
incomprehensible,” Hess said. “These are people from
a Kurdish region in Iran where during the revolution
in ‘79 there were strong Kurdish organisations and
also conflicts – but this is still no reason to add
their names to the an international authority like
the Interpol system 30 years later.”
Because of the way Interpol functions, the
likelihood of German intervention is low, he said.
However, the fact that Sardari has yet to be
arrested by German officials makes clear that they
“have no interest in acting as henchmen for the
Iranian regime,” he added.
“The question is how reliable a system like Interpol
can be when it serves such criminal regimes,” he
concluded.
In an email response to The Local’s inquiry on the
case, the Interpol press office said it could not
comment directly on Sardari’s case, but explained
that Red Notices are simply a way to inform member
countries that an arrest warrant has been issued by
a judicial authority.
“It is not an international arrest warrant, nor can
Interpol demand that any member country arrest the
subject of a Red Notice,” the statement said.
Interpol’s job is to help national police in finding
these individuals, but not to “assess the evidence
in a case or a request for a Red Notice.”
Member countries or individuals may challenge such
notices, but the organisation said it does not
intervene based on political concerns.
Sardari and his colleagues in Sweden continue to
await response to their challenges registered with
Interpol – in addition to any word from their
respective government authorities on the matter.
“We have no idea when we’ll hear back,” Hess said.
The German Foreign Ministry did not respond to The
Local’s requests for comment in time for this
article’s publication.
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