Interpol ‘processing red notice request for Kurdi’

AMMAN — Justice Minister Awad Abu Jarad, said that the International Criminal Police (Interpol) has received the request to issue the red notice for the convicted Walid Kurdi about a week ago, specifically on August 29, 2017. 

Abu Jarad explained that the Interpol sent a number of inquiries, which were all responded to, regarding the nature of the crimes committed by the convicted person, who was convicted for corruption cases related to his job as the former chairman of the Jordan Phosphates Mining Company (JPMC), the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Wednesday.

The minister added that, once the conditions for the request were met, it would be referred to a reviewing commission to examine and issue a decision. 

A competent Jordanian delegation will be dispatched to the International Criminal Police in the coming days to follow up the procedures for issuing the bulletin, he announced. 

In a related context, the minister denied that European courts had made any judicial decision on the case, stressing that local authorities had not been officially informed of such a ruling, referring to a reported ruling by an EU court that declared Kurdi.

Abu Jarad had earlier sent an official letter to the British interior minister to facilitate the arrest and extradition of Kurdi. 

At its session last week, the Cabinet instructed the minister to use all the legal options available in coordination with the Attorney General Office, to issue an international all points bulletin and a red notice for Kurdi, who was tried in absentia and has been at large for four years. 

The minister was also tasked to file the necessary requests for legal assistance to ensure that the financial dues are paid in full.

In 2013, the Amman Criminal Court sentenced the former JPMC chief to 22-and-a-half years and fined him over JD253 million in the high-profile corruption case.