Interpol has issued international Blue Notices for 23 dangerous criminals and convicted terrorists, including some responsible for attacks on US and French ships in 2000 and 2002, who escaped last week from a military prison in Yemen.
A Blue Notice is a request for police in Interpol’s 184 member countries to provide information about an individual’s location and activities. Some countries may decide to detain the subject of a Blue Notice even if no valid national arrest warrant exists.
The notices were issued, say Lyons-based Interpol, based on general information, photographs and other details of the fugitives sent to the Interpol General Secretariat in France, by Yemeni authorities. On Sunday, Interpol issued an urgent global security alert, known as an Orange Notice, following the mass escape.
If further details, including fingerprints and national arrest warrants, are received from Yemen, Interpol could issue its better-known Red Notice, a higher status alert which is considered by many member countries to be a formal request for provisional arrest pending extradition.
One of the escapees, Jamal Ahmed Badawi was already the subject of a Red Notice issued at the request of the United States for his role in the bombing of the navy ship USS Cole in 2000. A Red Notice was also issued at the same time for his co-conspirator Fahd Mohammed Al-Quso following the attack in which 17 sailors were killed. Al-Quso was not among the 23 prisoners who escaped from the Yemen prison on Friday. The US authorities have now approved the broader public release of these Red Notices beyond Interpol National Central Bureaus (NCBs), to assist with the international effort to locate Badawi and the other Yemeni escapees.
