Ex-Interpol boss detained by China sent 'knife emoji' to wife before disappearance
She inferred that her husband was 'in danger', she said
October 09, 2018
KARACHI: The wife of Meng Hongwei, Interpol's former president for China who was reported missing on Saturday and later revealed to have been detained "on suspicion of violating the law" by Beijing, said a day later her husband had sent her a 'knife' emoji via WhatsApp shortly before he vanished.
Meng's wife Grace told reporters who met with her that her husband had been missing since September 25 and she is unaware of his whereabouts or if he was safe.
On the aforementioned date, Grace said, Meng had sent her a text message on WhatsApp, saying, "Wait for my call," followed by an emoji showing a knife four minutes later, according to The Guardian.
She inferred that her husband was "in danger", she added.
Fearing for safety
During the times he was away from his wife, working abroad or at long distance, the two would be in touch daily. “I don’t know what has happened to him,” she said.
“For as long as I can’t see my husband face to face speaking to me, I can’t be very positive,” she mentioned, noting that her husband had gone to their motherland for work purposes and asking for the global fraternity's help in finding Meng.
Grace neither faced the reporters while addressing the press conference nor allowed any photographer to take her pictures over fear for her and her two children's safety.
'Timely, absolutely correct'
The French police took the family under their protection after receiving threats through social media and telephone.
On Monday, China’s Ministry of Public Security had said in a statement on its website "the investigation against Meng Hongwei’s taking bribes and suspected violations of law is very timely, absolutely correct and rather wise”.
The ministry added that Meng “only had himself to blame” and that “there is no exception in front of the law.” Interpol quickly said it “regretted” the secretive move.
A day before that, on Sunday, the France-based global police coordination body had announced that they had received Meng's resignation letter "with immediate effect". In China's previous government, the ex-Interpol officer was a vice minister.
The first Chinese president of Interpol, Meng was last heard from on September 25 when he left Lyon for China. His disappearance was disclosed by French officials on Friday but China had remained tight-lipped about his status till two days later.
'They just don’t care'
Juergen Stock, the agency's secretary-general who oversees day-to-day operations, said Saturday the Interpol was seeking "clarification" on his whereabouts from Chinese authorities.
Meng's disappearance is the latest high-profile one in China, where a number of top government officials, billionaire business magnates, and even an A-list celebrity have vanished for weeks or months at a time. When — or if — they reappear, it is often in court.
With Julian Ku, a professor at Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law, saying Meng's detention suggested China's “domestic considerations outweighed the international ones”, as per Slate, the move only appears to confirm that Beijing was covertly inching toward authoritarianism amid an anti-corruption campaign.
"China no longer cares about ‘losing face’," Beijing-based historian Zhang Lifan said, referring to his country's justice system being far from transparent. “Making the president of Interpol suddenly disappear is embarrassing."
“I think the authorities knew how big the discussion would be after this incident, but they just don’t care.”
