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Interview: Anti-corruption needs global cooperation -- Interpol officers

Xinhua, May 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

It is important for countries to work cooperatively to fight crimes such as corruption, because crimes do not respect borders, an Interpol director told Xinhua.

The international police agency's National Central Bureau of China released in April a list of 100 persons wanted for corruption -- 77 men and 23 women.

The move is part of "Sky Net," a Chinese campaign to repatriate corruption suspects and also a strong signal of China's endeavor to fight corruption via global cooperation.

James Anderson, assistant director for Anti-corruption and Financial Crime at Interpol, told Xinhua that law enforcement agencies should work closely because the world is more connected today.

"Everything is interconnected through the Internet these days so for law enforcement it's very important that we stay connected," Anderson said.

He also stressed that it is important for all members of the international police agency to form strong networks because criminals are not restricted by boundaries.

Talking about difficulties in the international law enforcement cooperation, Anderson said that, besides language barriers, different legal structures between different countries also prove to be a tricky problem.

"You can talk about asset recovery whether it's conviction based, non-conviction based, common law, what kind of legal framework is set up within that country. So that's some of the challenges that we deal with," Anderson said.

Anderson also mentioned that China and Interpol worked closely on various financial crime operations and intelligence exchanges, saying that Interpol hopes to further that cooperation in the anti-corruption program.

"I think it's important to highlight corruption, especially in the public sector, because every one of our member countries is faced with that," Anderson said.

Glyn Lewis, director of Special Crime of Interpol, shared his opinions with Xinhua on the red notices which Interpol's National Central Bureau of China released in April.

"If you have a criminal case against one of those suspects and you put them up on Interpol and you put it on red notice, then that is an international fugitive because the organization has endorsed a red notice," said Lewis.

Talking about Interpol's cooperation with China, Lewis said China is extremely important to Interpol.

"We worked with China on a number of different crime types: illicit goods, illicit movement of slaves, people smuggling, and in relation to activities concerning financial crimes and so on," said Lewis.

Noting that China has been a member of Interpol since 1923, he believed that Interpol needs to move forward even stronger collaboration with China. Endi