AJ
⚡️ Interpol Red Notices issued for Netanyahu & others are a political filing, not an arrest warrant
➡️ Turkiye’s Justice Ministry have asked Interpol to issue red notices for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli official Afek Moskovitch, which follows arrest warrants issued on July 14 by Istanbul’s 11th High Criminal Court in an in-absentia case involving 35 defendants over Israel’s interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla.
🔹 According to the Turkish authorities, the list of charges include ‘genocide, crimes against humanity, torture, and hijacking of vessels, which Justice Minister Akin Gürlek framed as ‘rejecting impunity for Gaza-related actions.’
🔹 The red notice request is not a notice, because Interpol reviews submissions against its constitution, which prohibits politically motivated use of the system, so member states would then need to decide independently whether to act – no notice has yet been issued, and Interpol have historically declined similar extra-territorial, in-absentia claims against sitting leaders of democratic states.
🔹 Reports suggest that the case now rests on a Turkish court asserting jurisdiction over an Israeli naval operation in international waters – a legal reach other states are under no obligation to recognise.
🔹 The filing continues Ankara’s long-running diplomatic campaign against Israel more than it constitutes a practical enforcement mechanism.
🔹 Israel’s Prime Minister’s Officer took to X saying that Erdogan was an ‘antisemitic dictator who had massacred Kurds, harbours Hamas terrorists, occupies half of Cyprus, jails record numbers of journalists and politicians who oppose him.’
🔹 “He now seeks to extend his aggression against Syria,” the statement warned, saying: “Israel will not tolerate it – Erdogan’s pathetic attempt to intimidate the leaders and soldiers of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East, will go nowhere.”
