Interpol's role in tracing wanted individuals with a view to their extradition

1. Locating and arresting wanted individuals
2. Request for provisional arrest

Under the terms of Article 2 of its Constitution, one of the main aims of Interpol is to promote international mutual assistance in law enforcement matters. The Organization thereby makes it possible for member states to co-operate in tracing wanted individuals with a view to their extradition.

Such co-operation through Interpol channels takes place at the pre-extradition stage, i.e. prior to the formal request for extradition, which only begins when the formal request for extradition is sent through diplomatic channels along with all the necessary documents. This can sometimes take several days.

1. Locating and arresting wanted individuals

This prior 'police' phase makes it possible to 'immobilize' an individual once he has been located and prevent him from escaping before the extradition procedure has been implemented.

The pre-extradition procedure is conditioned by the powers conferred on the national police in application of the country's extradition laws. On receipt of a wanted notification, the police authorities may themselves decide to take certain measures: tracing the individual, carrying out identity checks, placing in police custody, questioning, placing under surveillance. In most states, measures of a more serious nature can only be taken if letters rogatory have been issued by a judge: this would be the case for a measure such as detention, but also for searching persons or premises, provisional seizure of property, documents or money, restrictions on freedom of movement.

The use of Interpol channels in this context generally proceeds as follows. A magistrate or the Ministry of the Interior in a country asks its National Central Bureau to circulate an arrest warrant internationally. A wanted notification is circulated over the Interpol network to all or some of the National Central Bureaus, or the National Central Bureau transmits a request to the General Secretariat for a red notice to be issued - the notice is transmitted to all the National Central Bureaus once the request has been has been examined and checked by the General Secretariat. The National Central Bureau circulates the red notice or the wanted notification to the departments concerned in its state. If the person is found, the police department which located him informs the National Central Bureau and takes the steps it is authorized to take. The National Central Bureau in the state in which the individual was located informs the General Secretariat and the National Central Bureau which requested the red notice, which then informs the magistrate who issued the arrest warrant.

Since 2000, the Organization's role has not been restricted to relaying requests. In fact, a sub-directorate has been created within the General Secretariat to provide specific help to the National Central Bureaus in this field and to actively co-ordinate searches.

2. Request for provisional arrest

Wanted notifications transmitted through Interpol channels can be sent with requests for provisional arrest. This is generally provided for in the conventions and bilateral treaties relating to extradition and, for many of these legal instruments, Interpol constitutes a transmission channel which, if not preferred, is at least authorized, particularly in urgent cases (examples).

However, a magistrate in a requested country can only grant a request for provisional arrest if the request complies with the conditions of substance and form laid down in international conventions or bilateral treaties. Red notices are instruments of police and judicial co-operation made available to the member states by the Organization, and are particularly suited to such demands.

In fact, red notices, the form for which was updated in 1998, are formatted documents which cannot be issued unless they contain the elements enabling the wanted person to be identified, legal information relating to the offence concerned, and reference to a valid arrest warrant or conviction.

A study carried out in 1997 and 1998 among Ministers of Justice of Interpol's member states showed that most of those states grant red notices the status of a request for provisional arrest, notably when the requested state is connected to the requesting state by a bilateral treaty or a convention on extradition and especially when a legal text on extradition (national law, treaty or convention) provides for such a request to be transmitted via Interpol.

For the requesting state, the fact that the requesting state grants legal status to red notices guarantees that the individual will be placed under provisional arrest once he has been located, and that it will be informed of that fact so the extradition procedure can begin.

Granting red notices the status of a request for provisional arrest simplifies and, in fact, speeds up the extradition procedure. In fact, if a wanted individual has been traced following the circulation of just an ordinary general wanted notification over the Interpol network, he can only be placed under provisional arrest if the magistrate in the requested state considers that the notification meets all the conditions required for it to be accepted as a request for provisional arrest. In practice, there will be additional correspondence between the requesting and requested states, since the magistrate in the requesting state must transmit, via the National Central Bureau, a request for provisional arrest in due form and confirm, often within a short space of time, that extradition will be requested. The risk is that, in the meantime, the individual might have been able to take refuge in another state or have been released from custody.

This is why Interpol's General Assembly has stressed many times, and particularly in Resolution AGN/65/RES/12 (65th General Assembly session, Antalya, 1996), the value of systematically using the red notices and the need to grant red notices the status of a request for provisional arrest. It also explains why it is important for the National Central Bureaus to provide as much information as possible when drafting messages asking for the arrest of a wanted person with a view to extradition.

Apart from the format used for making such requests, the Interpol General Assembly has asked the National Central Bureaus to give priority status to cases in which extradition is requested.

Last updated on 03 March 2004