INTERPOL Lawyers in Dubai: Red Notice Removal and Extradition Defence

Red Notice, Diffusion or Arrest Warrant: What Is the Difference?

Most notices are not public. Only a small share of Red Notices appear on INTERPOL's website, so a person often learns of one only when stopped at a border or refused a visa or bank account.

How a Red Notice Is Removed

1. Confirm whether a notice exists. We file a request for access to INTERPOL's files with the CCF. The Commission tells you what data is held, subject to the requesting country's consent.
2. Review the underlying case. We examine the warrant, the charges and the requesting country's record to identify grounds for deletion.
3. File the deletion application. Common grounds include political motivation, a dispute that is purely commercial or civil, lack of a valid warrant, a prior acquittal or settlement, expiry under limitation rules, and human rights concerns in the requesting state.
4. Respond to the requesting country. The CCF asks the country that requested the notice for its views. We reply to its submissions.
5. Decision. The CCF issues a binding decision. INTERPOL's rules set the standard timeframe for deletion requests at nine months, which can be extended.

A preventive application is also possible: if you expect a country to request a notice, for example after a failed business in your home country, the CCF can be asked in advance to review any request with your submissions on file.

If You Are Detained in the UAE on a Red Notice

Detention on a Red Notice starts an extradition process under UAE law, Federal Law No. 39 of 2006 on International Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters, and any bilateral treaty with the requesting country. The requesting state must then submit a formal extradition request within the set time limit.

• Ask for an advocate before signing any statement.
• Bail or release against guarantees may be possible, depending on the offence and the stage.
• The UAE courts examine whether the legal conditions for extradition are met, including dual criminality and whether the offence is political.
• A CCF application can run in parallel with the court defence and is often the stronger route.

Can You Travel While a CCF Application Is Pending?

Filing an application with the CCF does not suspend or hide the notice. Until the Commission orders deletion and INTERPOL removes the data, the notice stays on INTERPOL's systems and any border crossing carries the same risk of detention. Applications are made in writing, so you do not need to travel to file one.

Common Situations We Handle

Most Red Notice cases we see in Dubai fall into one of these patterns:

• A business dispute or unpaid debt in the home country turned into a criminal charge such as fraud or breach of trust.
• A bounced cheque case from before the UAE's 2022 cheque reforms, still linked to a notice abroad. See our cheque bounce lawyers.
• A notice requested by a government after the person became a critic, opposition figure or witness.
• A notice that should have been withdrawn after a settlement, acquittal or expiry, but was not.

Mistakes That Make a Red Notice Harder to Remove

• Travelling to "test" whether a notice exists.
• Ignoring the case in the requesting country, where a settlement or appeal could remove the basis for the notice.
• Filing a CCF application without evidence. The Commission decides on the documents.

Why Clients Instruct HT Lawyers

INTERPOL cases sit between international procedure and UAE criminal law. Our team handles CCF applications and appears before the UAE courts in extradition matters, and works with lawyers in the requesting country when the underlying case needs to be challenged there. Related work is handled by our international lawyers, criminal lawyers and banking and finance lawyers for fraud-based notices.