Interpol removes Umar Farooq Zahoor from red notice list

LONDON: Interpol has removed businessman Umar Farooq Zahoor from the list of internationally wanted persons (Red Notice) in a high-profile case started by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under former accountability adviser Shahzad Akbar.

The Interpol had added Dubai-based businessman Zahoor to the Red Notice database after an application moved by Zahoor’s former wife and actor Sophia Mirza (alias Khushbakhat Mirza) with help from Akbar who had tasked the FIA to go after the Dubai-based businessman at all costs.

The General Secretariat of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) in Lyon has confirmed that Zahoor is no longer subject to an Interpol Notice or diffusion.

Interpol has confirmed in a letter that “the Commission carried out the appropriate checks” in accordance with its functions and that the information concerning Zahoor provided by Pakistan has been deleted from the Interpol Information System at the request of its National Central Bureau on 28 September 2022.

Papers show that the Interpol Commission – made up of four members from US, UK, Lebanon, and Morocco –has deleted the Red Notice category for Zahoor after the FIA wrote to Interpol on September 26 confirming approval for the cancellation of the Red Notice, in a case started by FIA Punjab Zone-1.

Zahoor’s name was added to Interpol’s most wanted list after the FIA wrote to the international police making several allegations against Liberia’s Ambassador-At-Large for South East Asia, the Middle East, and Pakistan.

His name was removed from the Red List after the fresh investigation, conducted by the officers of FIA appointed by the new government, revealed that the allegations against Zahoor were frivolous and politically motivated.

Investigations established later on that the FIA was asked by Akbar to help Sophia Mirza, the former wife of Zahoor. The couple married in 2006, divorced within a year after the birth of twin daughters, and ever since they have fought a custody battle, while daughters Zainab and Zuneirah have publicly maintained they want to live with their father.

Umar Zahoor’s predicament started when the FIA Lahore Anti Human Trafficking Circle proceeded with the registration of a criminal case against Zahoor on the complaint of his ex-wife over allegations of kidnapping his own daughters. At the same time, the FIA Corporate Crime Circle Lahore also initiated an inquiry against Zahoor over allegations of fraud and money laundering of around Rs16 billion on the complaint of the same complainant Khushbakht Mirza. The complainant accused (Zahoor) of being involved in a fraud of $89.2 million in Oslo, Norway, in 2010 and another fraud involving an amount of $12 million in Bern, Switzerland, back in the year 2004.

The complaint made its way to the PTI government’s federal cabinet agenda via the Interior Ministry, being run by then Chairman of Assets Recovery Unit (ARU) Mirza Shehzad Akbar, and the federal government gave a go-ahead to the FIA to probe the alleged fraud of over Rs16 billion by Zahoor and his relative Saleem Ahmad.

In the pursuance of the false and frivolous criminal cases registered against Zahoor: his name was placed on the Exit Control List (ECL); non-bailable warrants in one of the FIRs were obtained from the Court without fulfilling the legal requirements and on the basis of said non-bailable warrants, his passport and CNIC were blacklisted and Red Warrants were issued through INTERPOL by National Crime Bureau (NCB) Pakistan for arresting Mr Zahoor. The Constitution of INTERPOL does not permit is the issuance of red notices in family and civil disputes, however; the FIA added heinous offences in the FIR registered against  Zahoor in order to apprehend him through Interpol.

Interpol confirmed that it had received requests from the government of Pakistan in the year 2020 to issue Yellow Notices against the minor daughters of actor Sophia Mirza and businessman Umar Farooq Zahoor.

The Interpol has further confirmed that international Yellow Notices for twins Zainab Umar and Zuneirah Umar were issued and their names were placed on the Interpol database for international tracing after two requests from the FIA were received on April 30, 2020 and then again in July 2020 on the request of Sophia Mirza who wanted her daughters to be traced by the Interpol and taken back to Pakistan.

Names of Zuneirah Umar and Zainab Umar were later deleted in July 2021 after an investigation by Interpol revealed that the legal custody of both the daughters had already been granted to Umar Farooq Zahoor being their father and legal guardian by the Shariah Court of Dubai.

The two letters issued by the Office of Legal Affairs General Secretariat of Interpol confirm that Zuneirah and Zainab, both of whom are 15 years old, are no longer “subject to an INTERPOL Notice or diffusion”.

In a statement, Zahoor welcomed the Interpol decision. He said: “I am glad the Interpol and the FIA have finally realised that the cases against me were cooked up by Sophia and Akbar. They used the money and resources of Pakistani taxpayers to target me in a family dispute case. For two years, they used the FIA and other institutions against me like a mafia. They used the media to run campaigns against me and did everything to destroy me but the Almighty Allah is there for all to protect.”

Sophia Mirza didn’t comment.