There's a great Stuff You Should Know podcast episode on Interpol. As you point out, they're not a police force. They're an international organization designed to help connect police forces together. They know who to call and have translation services, etc.

A more apt description is that Interpol issued a notice stating that Japan wants this guy.

> A more apt description is that Interpol issued a notice stating that Japan wants this guy.

Current article title is "Carlos Ghosn: Interpol issues 'red notice' for Nissan ex-boss's arrest"

ah man... i always thought that interpol was the more classy version of mi6.

Yes, whereas e.g. European Arrest Warrants are serious business (because unlike the UN, the EU has teeth).

Except Interpol isn’t part of UN, so whether UN has teeth or not is pretty much irrelevant here.

Oh, sorry, you're quite right. I meant to check that first.

And now Interpol is increasingly used by suspect regimes (not including Japan in that!, but I would include China or Russia, Saudi Arabia) against their political rivals. Because of China's actions, I think Interpol lost a lot of credibility.

Lebanon doesn't have an extradition agreement with Japan, so the 'red notice' won't have much effect unless Ghosn sets foot in a country which does...

Also France said they don't extradite their citizens, so he'd be safe there as well (but he's facing charges for a different issue in France).

He is not currently facing charges in France, they are investigating.

He's also settled his cases with the SEC.

An agreement just facilitates things.

You can still be extradited without one.

But the odds are low if the country has an overall attitude not to ever extradite their own citizens.

I'll admit to embellishing the title a little to make it somewhat easier to parse. I'd expect a 'Red Notice' from Interpol would have the weight of a warrant in a good number of countries though. At least as much authority to ensure an active search and detention. If he's ever found, of course.

Interpol notices don't really have authority. They can cause an organisation that does have authority, like a national police force, to choose to search for and detain someone.

Having a red notice issued against you is a real pain in the ass:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/03/the-scourge-of-the-red-...

It's not an arrest warrant, but countries tend to just blindly trust them and they percolate down to street-level police automatically. Yeah, they chose to trust them in the first place, but there's often no case-by-case judgement happening until after the target has been detained.

The guidelines specifically ask you not to do this.

Updated.