Red Notice

A Red Notice is one of the types of documents issued by the Interpol General Secretariat at the request of member states. Its main purpose is to strengthen national searches conducted for the arrest, detention on remand and extradition of a specific person. The Red Notice is issued for the most serious crimes, such as murder, rape with particular cruelty, drug activity, forgery or participation in organized crime groups.

Information on the issuance of a Red Notice goes to all member states and is posted in the Nominal Database of the General Secretariat, making it available to national police units via the I-24/7 system. In addition, some of it is published on the Interpol website, along with the person’s photo, personal data and information on what act the person is wanted for.

Currently, the Interpol website provides information on Red Notice searches for about 7,000 people, including 40 Polish citizens. The condition for the issuance of a Red Notice is the prior issuance of a decision by the court of the Member State in which the person is being prosecuted on the subject of arrest and detention on remand.

In Poland, if the whereabouts of a person prosecuted with a Red Notice are established, the police unit immediately informs the National Central  Bureau in Warsaw, sending a notification of the positive result of the check and a request to confirm the current entry. If all information is up-to-date and confirmed, the arrest of the person in question takes place and the extradition procedure begins. During extradition proceedings, preventive measures may be applied to the suspect. The most common of these is detention on remand.

With regard to matters related to the issuance of an Interpol Red Notice and extradition proceedings, Kopeć & Zaborowski Law Firm offers:

• detailed discussion of the institution of a Red Notice;
• preparation of a request for removal from Interpol databases and a request to determine whether a person is covered by a notice at a given time;
• detailed discussion of the institution of extradition, its admissibility and consequences, as well as an analysis of the legal and factual situation of a person subject to an extradition request, including the grounds for refusal to surrender a person to a foreign state;
• participation in the activities undertaken as part of the extradition procedure (including the drafting of position letters on the case);
• ongoing contact with the authorities conducting the proceedings and with the competent authorities of the state requesting extradition;
• preparation of appeals and letters to the Minister of Justice, the Ombudsman and the Prosecutor General in the field of extradition, including requesting cassation;
• analysis of cassation grounds and preparation of a cassation in an extradition case;
• preparation of a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights regarding irregularities in extradition proceedings;
• preparation of an application to the Head of the Office for Foreigners for granting a foreigner asylum in Poland and a possible application for reconsideration of the case and a complaint to the Voivodship Administrative Court.

Our services are directed to:

• persons prosecuted with a Red Notice;
• persons of interest to Interpol;
• persons against whom extradition proceedings have been initiated;
• Polish citizens and foreigners prosecuted by international law enforcement agencies.