The INTERPOL General Secretariat in Lion has not informed either Poland or other partner countries that the request for Mikhalevich’s arrest is politically motivated and for this reason it may be considered null, Polish police officials told TV channel TVN24.
On December 12, 2012 Polish border guards detained former presidential candidate Ales Mikhalevich at Warsaw airport. After the interference of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs he was released. The Belarusian authorities proved to have filed a request for his detention to INTERPOL. It took less than a day to find out that International Police had recognized the request politicization as far back as summer of 2011.
The Polish Ministry of Interior insisted on not obtaining proper information and promised to find a satisfactory explanation of it. But Minister of Internal Affairs Jacek Cichocki failed to meet up with the INTERPOL Secretary General for discussing the subject within two months.
According to police officials, The INTERPOL General Secretariat delivered a message of political motivation of Mikhalevich’s case only to INTERPOL Office in Belarus which did not forward it, as one should expect. However, when the Polish police contacted the office, they confirmed that the General Secretariat did order to recognize the case politicized.
Who is to blame for such a mess: Lion or Warsaw? Polish journalists have been in anticipation of INTERPOL’s reply for several weeks, but in vain.
Belsat
