Turkey’s candidate to lead INTERPOL has come under new scrutiny after The Telegraph published a special report alleging that he advised police on how to seek a Red Notice request for a human rights lawyer living in Belgium.
The Telegraph said it reviewed a classified memo in which Mustafa Serkan Sabanca, who heads INTERPOL’s National Central Bureau in Turkey, “kindly requested” that officers prepare the request for a Red Notice, which is a petition for INTERPOL member states to locate a suspect for possible extradition, under an embezzlement charge instead of terrorism.
Sabanca is widely viewed as a leading contender in this week’s presidential vote at INTERPOL’s General Assembly in Marrakech, where 196 member states are selecting a new president for a four-year term.
The Telegraph said the memo concerns a lawyer the paper identified only as Osman due to security concerns, who fled Turkey with his family in 2016 after police raids, was later granted asylum in Belgium and now remains in hiding.
According to The Telegraph, Osman once represented a client linked to the Gülen movement.
The Gülen movement, inspired by the views of the late Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, is renowned worldwide for its contributions to education, social welfare and interfaith dialogue.
The Turkish government, however, labeled the group as a “terrorist organization” in May 2016, a designation not recognized by the United States, the European Union or major international bodies.
The government accuses the group of orchestrating a failed coup the same year, a claim the movement strongly denies.
The courts in Europe and the United States have rejected most extradition requests related to the Gülen movement.
The Telegraph said Turkey has sent 3,579 Red Notice requests to INTERPOL since 2016 for people it accuses of ties to the Gülen movement, a figure that makes the country one of the most frequent users of the system.
Human rights groups and European lawmakers have said for years that Turkey uses INTERPOL channels to pursue political opponents, including journalists, teachers and civil servants who lost their jobs after the 2016 coup attempt.
According to The Telegraph, Sabanca wrote in June that police could not secure a Red Notice for Osman on a terrorism charge and should instead seek one for embezzlement.
The Telegraph said the letter was sent to the Turkish Ministry of Justice and to the heads of the country’s prosecution, intelligence, organized crime and counterterrorism units.
Turkey ultimately did not file the Red Notice request, but Osman told The Telegraph he fears Sabanca would use the INTERPOL presidency to pressure people who have fled Turkish government’s crackdown.
Osman told The Telegraph that he was charged with embezzlement over a disputed transfer of about 2,000 pounds, which he denies, and he described the allegation as part of a pattern of pressure on lawyers who defended clients linked to the Gülen movement.
The Telegraph quoted a British extradition lawyer who said the memo showed an effort to disguise a political case as an ordinary crime so that foreign courts might view it as legitimate.
Turkey stands just behind Russia and China in its use of Red Notices for political targets, according to findings by the UK Parliament’s human rights committee.
Turkey’s embassy in London told The Telegraph that Ankara denies all claims of abuse and said the memo was “manipulation” by the Gülen movement.
A spokesman told The Telegraph that Turkey followed INTERPOL rules and that the embezzlement charge was legitimate because member states may request a Red Notice for any ordinary criminal offense.
INTERPOL told The Telegraph that its constitution bars notices that are political and that all Red Notice requests undergo a strict review to ensure neutrality.
Sabanca is competing for the presidency with candidates from France, Namibia and Ethiopia.
The president chairs INTERPOL’s Executive Committee, which helps shape policy and signals global priorities in police cooperation.
The current INTERPOL president, from the United Arab Emirates, has faced torture allegations, which added to concerns about governance of the organization.
An earlier Nordic Monitor investigation reported that Turkish authorities issued internal guidance in 2025, telling police to drop terrorism references in INTERPOL filings and use offenses such as data misuse or financial crimes instead, a pattern that mirrors the tactic described in the new memo.