PARIS, May 25 (RIA Novosti) - The international police agency Interpol has deleted from its database all information in relation to UK-based investor William Browder, the organization said in a statement on Friday.
Browder, who heads the Hermitage Capital equity fund, is a former boss of deceased lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and a prominent campaigner for justice in his case. Magnitsky’s 2009 death in a Moscow jail triggered a furious diplomatic row between Moscow and Washington.
Russia put Browder on an international wanted list following Moscow’s Tverskoi Court arrest warrant issued last month. On Monday Moscow also requested Interpol to issue a “blue notice” for Browder, requiring all 190 member states to “collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a crime,” The Telegraph reported.
The issue was considered by the independent Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files (CCF) on Friday.
“The CCF studied a complaint brought before it by Browder and concluded that the case was of a predominantly political nature and recommended that all information be deleted from Interpol’s databases,” Interpol said in a statement posted on its website.
“Immediately upon receipt of the CCF’s decision, the Interpol General Secretariat followed their recommendation,” the statement reads.
The General Secretariat has informed all member countries about the decision.
The Russian Interior Ministry has so far only requested Interpol to gather information on Browder, not to arrest him, a ministry spokesman told RIA Novosti on Saturday.
Despite Interpol’s decision on Friday, the ministry still plans to formally request Interpol to arrest Browder once the move is sanctioned by Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, the spokesman said.
Browder was charged in absentia in March with illegally purchasing shares in Russian energy giant Gazprom.
He was charged with buying Gazprom stock at a time when foreign ownership of the world's largest natural gas producer was restricted. The Interior Ministry said the charges were filed in absentia because no one had responded to the summons served two days before by diplomatic mail.
(The story above was updated to include comment from the Russian Interior Ministry.)
