LIVE UPDATES: Russian media reported misleadingly that businessman and former political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky was “wanted internationally” by Interpol, but Interpol today flatly rejected Russia’s request.
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Yesterday, February 11, Russian media reported misleadingly that businessman and former political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky was “wanted internationally” by Interpol, the international police agency.
The charges related to the 1998 murder of Nefteyugansk Mayor Vladimir Petukhov, for which former KGB officer and Yukos security chief Alexey Pichugin was convicted in 2007.
LifeNews, a pro-Kremlin TV station close to intelligence and police ran a headline saying, “Interpol Declared Khodorkovsky Wanted in Murder Case”.
But other media of varying stages of independence including Forbes Russia, Gazeta.ru, Novaya Gazeta and Vedomosti also ran the false headline “Interpol Declared Khodorkovsky Internationally Wanted,” all based on the Interfax news story with the headline “Khodorkovsky Declared Internationally Wanted List Through Interpol.”
The fact is, Khodorkovsky’s name does not appear on Interpol’s international wanted list.
Interfax reported a statement from a representative of Russia’s Interpol office (translation by The Interpreter):
The National Bureau of Interpol in Russia declared Khodorkovsky internationally wanted on the basis of materials received by the Russian Federation Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee. The relevant decision was sent to Interpol’s central office in Lyons.
Interpol is an international body with 190 members which, like any multinational body is a sum of its parts, and its secretariat may not always rise above the prejudices and political agendas of any one member. As Interpol explains, it does not send its own officers around to arrest people. Each member country has an International national bureau which contacts the central office.
As we’ve reported in the past, Russia is notorious for misusing Interpol to report political enemies. In December, we reported that Russia had misleadingly declared Khodorkovsky “internationally wanted” when he was arrested in absentia.
As we’ve reported in the past, Russia is notorious for misusing Interpol to report political enemies. In December, we reported that Russia had misleadingly declared Khodorkovsky “internationally wanted” when he was arrested in absentia.
During the 12 years that Khodorkovsky faced multiple trials and served his sentences in Russian labor colonies, authorities never charged him with anything related to the murder. He believes that his opposition to the Kremlin since his pardon in 2013 and in particular his expose of the facts from the Spanish prosecutors’ case linking Russian officials and even President Vladimir Putin to crime gangs that accounts for the latest round of persecution.
Today, Slon.ru reported that in fact Interpol had rejected the Khodorkovsky case from Russia, citing a TASS report from Paris with a statement from Interpol’s headquarters in Lyons (translation from Russian by The Interpreter):
After the review of the inquiry, the General Secretariat of Interpol established that it does not correspond to the organization’s rules. In that connection, the National Central Bureau in Moscow was informed that Interpol channels cannot be activiated for international police cooperation on this case.
Of course, given the penetration of state TV in Russia — and even the tendency of some people to read it in reverse and trust independent media — the damage from yesterday’s story is already done.