Our Enrico Di Fiorino interviewed in Le Figaro, 8 December 2025.
Interpol has historically played an extremely important role in effectively combating the most serious crimes at the international level. However, the international organisation, now composed of 196 member countries, is afflicted by serious problems that undermine international cooperation.
In the article, lawyers Pierre-Olivier Sur and Clara Gérard-Rodriguez of FTMS describe attempts at manipulation by China and Interpol’s current inability to prevent the abusive use of the Red Notice system.
Our Enrico Di Fiorino denounces another distortion of the procedure: “To avoid an official refusal of extradition by third countries, Russia – which is moreover excluded from the Council of Europe – sometimes refrains from submitting an extradition request, leaving the individuals concerned in a state of permanent uncertainty: they remain exposed to the risk of arrest abroad. This situation reveals the limits of a system founded on the good-faith cooperation of States and highlights the need for a deep and definitive reform of Interpol in order to protect the rule of law and fundamental rights.”
The risk is that of remaining in a perpetual limbo, constantly exposed to the danger of being arrested in any country – an arrest which in itself cannot be challenged – because of the Red Notice, but without any authority being able to intervene to restore the person’s liberty: neither the judicial authorities of individual countries, deprived in a unilateral and instrumental way of a case on which they could rule, nor Interpol’s CCF, which had increasingly relied on national decisions to delete Red Notices.
