The presentation of the most recent report of the Open Dialog Foundation on the need to reform the Interpol system is producing its first effects. Female MEPs of theGroup of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) at the European Parliament addressed a letter to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini on the widespread abuse of the system of the International Criminal Police Organisation by Kazakh authorities.
In their letter, Ana Gomes from Portugal and Marju Lauristin from Estonia pointed to the cases of two Kazakh dissidents, Mukhtar Ablyazov in France and Muratbek Ketebayev in Spain, who had been arrested under politically-motivated Interpol notices. They are now awaiting extradition rulings.
Gomes and Lauristin emphasised, at the same time, the contradiction of these actions with Article 3 of Interpol’s Constitution which prohibits any intervention or activities of a political character and called upon F. Mogherini to raise the issue of Interpol system abuse and the specific cases of M. Ablyazov and M. Ketebayev in her talks with the French and Spanish authorities and to call on them not to allow the extraditions to go ahead.
In December 2014, both MEPs met M. Ketebayev at the European Parliament in Brussels.