Chinalaw reports…Vice-minister of public security ‘taken away’ after arriving in China by plane from France last week
Meng Hongwei, the Chinese president of international law enforcement agency Interpol who was reported missing to French police by his wife, is under investigation in China, a source told the South China Morning Post.
The 64-year-old official, who is also a vice-minister at China’s Ministry of Public Security, was “taken away” for questioning by discipline authorities “as soon as he landed in China” last week, the person said.
It is not yet clear why Meng is being investigated or exactly where he is being held.
French police said earlier they had launched a search for Meng after being contacted by his wife, news agencies reported.
Interpol said on Friday it was aware of reports of Meng’s “alleged disappearance” and that the issue was a matter for the relevant authorities in France and China.
The organisation’s secretary general, not Meng, was responsible for the day-to-day running of Interpol, it said.
“Interpol’s General Secretariat headquarters will not comment further,” it said.
The official was last seen in France on September 29, police sources said.
It was initially unclear where Meng had gone missing, but a source in the European country said: “He did not disappear in France.”
An unnamed French judicial official said Meng arrived in China at the end of September but added that there had been no news of him since.
While Meng is listed on the website of China’s Ministry of Public Security as a vice-minister, he lost his seat on its Communist Party Committee, its real decision-making body, in April.
According to his own page on the site, Meng’s last official engagement was on August 23, when he met Lai Chung Han, a second permanent secretary of Singapore.
Meng was appointed head of Interpol in 2016. He was due to serve until 2020.
His appointment was met with concern by academics and human rights advocates, who feared he would abuse Interpol’s powers to forcibly repatriate Chinese dissidents and fugitives.
Interpol is the world’s biggest police cooperation agency, with 192 member countries. While it can issue international alerts for wanted persons it does not have direct power to issue arrest warrants.
In 2014, it issued red notices for 100 Chinese fugitive officials living overseas.
During a speech at the 86th Interpol General Assembly in Beijing in September 2017, Meng talked about the importance of international cooperation and combating cybercrime.
