 | | Little known facts: The guy on the left is McCauley Caulkin before he got small. The guy on the right is Cosmo Topper... |
Interpol would start issuing a new type of international alert notice to help police intercept people with alleged terrorist links who appear on a United Nations sanctions list, a top official said overnight. Ulrich Kersten, the world police body's special representative at the United Nations, said the new alert would make it easier to detect suspects, for example when trying to cross international borders. He said it would not automatically oblige authorities to arrest a listed person, but it could prompt them to refuse entry to a country and seize weapons or cash. "If a (listed) person is found to have $US20,000 in their luggage, checks can then be made to see if this can be seized on the basis of court orders," he said.
A total of 328 individuals and 119 entities are currently named on the UN sanctions list as participating in financing, planning, facilitating or carrying out activities linked to al-Qaeda or the Afghan Taliban. Under a UN resolution passed in July, countries are now obliged to provide detailed information on suspects to Interpol when they submit names to be added to the list.
Interpol had raised concerns in the past that it was hampered in its investigations because it was not receiving this data. The 184-nation police body has its own database of about 8000 terrorist suspects, including details such as passport numbers, credit card details and phone numbers. UN official Guillermo Kendall said more than $US90 million worth of assets had so far been seized from individuals appearing on the UN sanctions list. |