11 European Parliament members call on Interpol to consider arrest warrant against Akhmed Zakayev to be null and void

Catherine LalumiХre, Vice-president of the EP (France, PSE), Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Co-president of the Green Group (France), Francis Wurtz, President of the GUE/NGL Group (France), Ari Vatanen (Finland, PPE-DE), Glyn Ford (United Kingdom, PSE), FodИ Sylla (France, GUE/NGL), GeneviХve Fraisse (France, GUE/NGL), Giuseppe Di Lello (Italy, GUE/NGL), Harlem DИsir (France, PSE), Gianfranco Dell'Alba and Olivier Dupuis (Italy, Radicals) sent a letter on January 29 to the Secretary General of INTERPOL, Ronald K. Noble, calling for assurances that in the light of the judicial rulings in Denmark and the United Kingdom, the international arrest warrant on the head of the Chechen Minister Akhmed Zakayev is considered to be null and void.

Last year a group of members of the European Parliament awarded the "Passport for Freedom" to Akhmed Zakayev, Minister of Culture in the Chechen government of President Maskhadov, shortly after the Danish authorities had rejected the application for extradition made by the Russian Federation, and as the British courts were in the process of dealing with a further application for extradition, which they in turn rejected a year later.