“I am being held at the airport. Please don’t worry too much,” the message read. “I think I will be okay. But who knows?” Kimberley Glendinning won’t forget the moment she read those words. “My heart actually missed a beat,” she says, her voice quavering.
In September 2022, Kimberley’s husband, Brian, was on his way to a job in Iraq. He’d worked in the oil industry for years, often abroad. She was used to it.
So when he left their home in Kincardine, Scotland, she was expecting him to check in during his stopover in Dubai, and again on arrival in Basra. His message from Dubai was cheerful. But when he landed in Basra – everything changed. Brian had been detained because of an Interpol Red Notice.
“It was horrible,” Kimberley says.
Brian, who is 44, has three children with Kimberley. Nobody knew when or how he would be released. He was moved from Basra to a prison in the capital Baghdad where he was able to convince the prison guards to let him call home occasionally, but his family never knew when the phone would ring.
The Red Notice was uploaded to Interpol by Qatar, and dates back about five years to when Brian was living and working there as an oil engineer. He had taken out a bank loan and was working and paying it off until he became ill, left Qatar and lost his job.
Brian Glendinning and his family
Back in the UK, Brian says he contacted the bank to try and figure out a repayment plan. But he had paid most of it off and figured he would settle it eventually. In the meantime, the bank took him to court and that court issued a warrant for his arrest, and made a request for a Red Notice through Interpol.
Brian’s prison conditions in Baghdad, where he spent the majority of his time, were poor. The toilet was an open drain in the corner of a cell which he shared with 42 people, some of them hardened criminals. He had to pay some of them for protection.
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“In his words, they were al Qaeda terrorists. People who have murdered their own father,” says John Glendinning, Brian’s brother who dropped everything to help coordinate his release. “And Brian’s in for about the last £4-5,000 of a loan. It doesn’t make sense.”
Kimberley was equally stunned. Her husband is a good guy, she says, and has never been in trouble before. Her mind kept racing with dark thoughts about what he might be going through. She was afraid that even if she did get her husband back – he might never be the same again.
“Brian said to me that there’s things that he’s seen in that cell… he never thought he’d see in his lifetime.”
Representatives of the Qatari government and the national bank were approached for comment and have not responded.
Brian and his granddaughter
Lives can be ruined
Most people don’t know that you can be locked up in a country you’ve never been to for a small amount of debt you owe in a country you don’t live in anymore. Most people with a Red Notice have no idea until they try to cross a border. But Brian’s story isn’t as unusual as it sounds.
About 20,000 Interpol notices are issued each year – acting as digital wanted posters which help police forces fight cross-border crime, and find fugitives. The notices are uploaded to a central database accessible to police in 195 countries.
When the notice system works, it helps capture people wanted for the most serious crimes: murder, drug trafficking, sexual exploitation, terrorism, money laundering. We don’t know exactly how many people are actually arrested on these notices each year, but data from 2016 suggests that the figure is in the low thousands.
A protest to free Brian Glendinning. Pic Sahar Zand
When the system breaks down, it is vulnerable to abuse by authoritarian governments tracking dissidents, business people seeking leverage, powerful people settling scores, and even banks collecting debt.
According to the available data these are a small minority of all Red Notices.
But for each person the consequences can be devastating: families separated, businesses fallen apart, freedoms taken away.
In short, lives can be ruined.
The Uyghur activist
Zeynure Hasan hasn’t seen her husband, Idris, a Uyghur activist who lived in exile in Istanbul, for two years. The couple’s three children are growing up without their father.
“I am angry,” Zeynure told us. “My children ask every day: where is my dad?”
Idris is a computer scientist who spread the word about China’s treatment of his people. Human rights groups have called China’s treatment of Uyghurs a genocide. The Chinese authorities accused Idris of what they call “terrorism”.
He was arrested at an airport in Morocco, after China requested a Red Notice through Interpol. Although Interpol quickly cancelled the notice, admitting that it was in breach of its own rules against political, religious and racial persecution, it was too late. Idris was already in a Moroccan prison. Despite claiming asylum, he is still in prison and fighting against extradition to China.
“If the Moroccan government send me to China, this would be equal to death for me,” Idris told us on the phone from prison, where he’s in solitary confinement. “Maybe I am forever in prison. I cannot see my children and my family – forever.”
Authorities in China and Morocco were approached for comment.
Zeynure holds a picture of her husband
Talking to Interpol
Interpol is a membership organisation for the world’s police forces. It was founded in the wake of the First World War, when the world powers came together to combat cross-border crime. As global travel has become easier, and technology more sophisticated, fighting international crime is harder than ever. Interpol will celebrate its 100th anniversary later this year, and the challenges it faces have never been greater.
“If a murderer is on the run, time matters. It’s a time-sensitive thing. Somebody can jump on a plane in a few hours, be somewhere else and commit the next crime. So we need to act fast,” says Interpol’s Secretary General, Jurgen Stock.
The Red Notice system is the cornerstone of Interpol’s toolkit. A police force in one country can issue a Red Notice request to Interpol for a fugitive. Interpol then pins that Red Notice to an internal message board visible to police around the world. Each country then acts on the information according to their own protocols. These can vary significantly. Some countries don’t generally act on them, others treat them as if they were arrest warrants.
Pic Sahar Zand
Despite Interpol’s own guidelines saying that notices can’t be actioned if they have political, ethnic, military or religious intent, it’s clear that some of this nature are still getting through.
Stock took the helm in 2014 and will leave office next year. To combat abuses of Red Notices, he created a new task force to check them prior to circulation and beefed up the review council that investigates the worst cases. Stock sees his Red Notice reforms as defining his legacy.
But cases are still slipping through the net, and human rights lawyers and advocates claim the system is open to error and abuse.
In an interview at Interpol’s French headquarters, Stock described the Red Notice system as “very robust” but admitted it can break down, decrying every abuse as “one case too many”.
The organisation has improved its transparency under Jurgen Stock, but it is difficult to draw conclusions about the success of his reforms within the notice system from the available data.
Jurgen Stock from Interpol spoke to Sky News
The Secretary General isn’t willing to be drawn on the specifics of any individual cases, and won’t name the countries with the worst track records. Instead he points to the challenge of ensuring cooperation between countries with very different legal systems, who are sometimes locked in thorny diplomatic relations, and occasionally even at war with each other.
He also defends the Red Notice system as a whole, for its “unique capability” for catching the world’s most wanted international fugitives.
“The percentage of international-related organised crime and terrorism is increasing all around the world – that makes this a mechanism only Interpol can provide.”
‘I’ve lost my way’
Interpol’s limited public data shows that hundreds of people apply each year to have a Red Notice removed after encountering problems at international borders. In most of those cases, the notices are found to be non-compliant with Interpol’s rules. For example, in 2021, about 300 non-compliant notices were issued out of a total 24,000. A further 1,400 were weeded out before being published.
Experts like Ted Bromund, an Interpol historian, maintain that this figure only represents the tip of the iceberg. “If you see a cockroach on the floor of your kitchen and you stamp on it, what are the odds that there are no more cockroaches under the fridge, behind the range or in the walls?” he said.
Unlike many others, Brian’s nightmare did eventually end. He spent nine weeks in prison before striking a deal with the bank to get them to drop the notice. He had to pay more than £30,000, a sum far larger than the original debt. But he had a supportive family and assistance from the British government.
Zeynure with her children
There are very few countries around the world where a relatively small amount of unpaid bank debt would result in imprisonment. But Interpol, inadvertently, provides the tools for countries to “export their justice system” abroad, according to Radha Sterling, an advocate who has helped the Glendinning family navigate his detention.
“Interpol is their bypass, it allows them to export their justice worldwide at the click of a button,” she told us.
Radha runs Detained in Dubai, an organisation that advocates for people detained abroad. Interpol notice cases are an increasing part of her workload. She has seen hundreds of clients‘ lives change beyond recognition.
“A lot of the time the Interpol notice is the punishment,” she says. “It’s a method of state harassment.”
Brian’s return home hasn’t been easy. It’s clear that his experience has shaken him deeply.
“I’ve lost my way,” he said in his first interview since returning from Iraq. “I had a plan, a route that I was going down. I’m wondering how to get back on that path.”
While he has returned to work, he feels a deep sense of dread at the thought of getting on a plane – even for a family holiday. “I’m always thinking, something bad is going to happen to me.”
For Brian, there are enduring questions.
“I just hope one day that I’ll wake up in the morning and I can’t even remember it. I just want it to go away,” he said.
“Will I ever get over it? Will I ever put it behind me?”
Donald Trump has said the US is having direct talks with Iran over its nuclear programme – stating Iran will be in “great danger” if the negotiations fail.
The president has insisted Tehran cannot get nuclear weapons.
But Iran almost immediately contradicted the president insisting the talks due to take place in Oman on Saturday would be conducted through an intermediary.
Iran had pushed back against the US president’s demand that it enter negotiations over its nuclear programme or be bombed, but speaking at the White House on Monday, Mr Trump said: “We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started.
“It’ll go on Saturday,” he continued. “We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen. And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visits nuclear centrifuges in Tehran. Pic: Reuters
When pressed for more details on the talks, the US president said they are taking place “at almost the highest level”, without specifying who would take part or where they would be held.
“Hopefully those talks will be successful, it would be in Iran’s best interests if they are successful,” he said. “We hope that’s going to happen.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, Mr Trump said Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if the talks aren’t successful, I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran”.
However, Mr Trump’s bullish comments were not matched by Tehran. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X that indirect high-level talks would be held in Oman, adding: “It is as much an opportunity as it is a test. The ball is in America’s court.”
Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Pic: Reuters
On Tuesday, Iran’s state media said the talks would be led by Mr Araghchi and US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, with Oman’s foreign minister, Badr al Busaidi, acting as intermediary.
Mr Trump’s previous warnings of possible military action against Iran heightened already tense nerves across the Middle East.
He has said he would prefer a deal over military confrontation and in March wrote to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to suggest talks. Iranian officials at the time said Tehran would not be bullied into negotiations.
Mr Trump welcoming Mr Netanyahu to the White House. Pic: AP
Direct talks would not occur without the explicit approval of Iran’s supreme leader, who said in February that negotiations with the US were “not smart, wise, or honourable”.
During his first White House term, Mr Trump withdrew the US from a deal between Iran and world powers designed to curb Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief.
He also reimposed US sanctions.
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Iran has since far surpassed that deal’s limits on uranium enrichment.
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is wholly for civilian energy purposes but Western powers accuse it of having a clandestine agenda.
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Benjamin Netanyahu’s White House visit – his second in just over two months – was also due to include a news conference but this was cancelled earlier on Monday.
Officials said the decision was made because the Israeli prime minister and Mr Trump had “two back-to-back media availabilities (the greeting in the Oval Office and the formal news conference), and they wanted to streamline things”.
World
‘Atrocious’ killing of 15 aid workers by Israel must be independently investigated, Palestine Red Crescent says
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has demanded an independent investigation into the “atrocious” deaths of 15 aid workers killed by Israeli troops in Gaza in March.
The group’s president, Dr Younis al Khatib, said he had asked the UN Security Council to form an investigation committee into the “intentional killing of the medics”.
In response to Sky’s Alistair Bunkall, spokesman David Mencer claimed the killings were the result of Hamas hiding among civilians and using them as human shields.
But speaking in Ramallah, Dr al Khatib said those responsible must be held “accountable for these crimes” via international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention.
“It’s not enough to comfort us with condolences and nice words of investigation and accountability. There has to be action taken,” he added.
He urged an “independent and thorough investigation of this atrocious crime” and that “no one should be above the law”.
“So many questions being asked of the Israelis,” he said.
“Why were they killed? Why did you destroy the ambulances after killing them? Why did you try to dig deep and hide the ambulances? They have to answer for that.”
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said on Monday that a preliminary inquiry into the shooting “indicated the troops opened fire due to a perceived threat following a previous encounter in the area”.
The IDF added that “six of the individuals killed in the incident were identified as Hamas terrorists”.
It comes after footage at the weekend showed the moment the aid workers were killed, with ambulances and fire insignia clearly visible and red lights flashing.
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Phone footage contradicts Israeli claims of killing of Gaza medics
The paramedic filming, later found with a bullet in his head, is heard saying there are Israelis present and reciting a declaration of faith often used before someone dies.
He adds: “Forgive me, mother, this is the path I chose mother, to help people, forgive me, mother, I swear I chose this path only to help people.”
The Israeli military originally claimed the vehicles – which were travelling north of Rafah on 23 March – didn’t have headlights or emergency signals on and were targeted as they looked “suspicious”.
An IDF investigation is ongoing, but an Israeli government spokesman claimed on Monday that “six Hamas terrorists” were among those killed.
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‘Demands’ for medic death investigation
Mr Mencer said: “IDF soldiers opened fire at a distance at vehicles moving suspiciously in their direction.
“Among the dead were six Hamas terrorists – what were Hamas terrorists doing in ambulances? The incident was reported in real time to UN officials.”
He claimed there were “many documented occasions” when Hamas had used ambulances as cover.
An evacuation order was also in place at the time, which meant moving vehicles were prohibited, according to Israel.
The head of the UN’s humanitarian affairs office, Jonathan Whittall, said the 15 people were found in a “mass grave” in the sand.
He said those killed comprised eight members of the PRCS, six civil defence members and one UN employee.
Dylan Winder, from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said it was “outraged at the deaths” and that “even in the most complex conflict zones, there are rules”.
“They were humanitarians. They wore emblems that should have been protected. Their ambulances were clearly marked, and they should have returned to their families. They did not,” he said.
World
His only ‘crime’ is being Venezuelan and having tattoos, says brother of man ‘thrown to the lions’ in El Salvador jail
Until five weeks ago, Arturo Suarez was a professional singer, performing in the United States as he waited for his asylum claim to be processed.
Originally from Venezuela, he had entered the US through proper, legal channels.
But he is now imprisoned in a notorious jail in El Salvador, sent there by the Trump administration, despite seemingly never having faced trial or committed any crime. The White House claims he is a gang member but has not provided evidence to support this allegation.
His brother, Nelson Suarez, told Sky News he believes his brother’s only “crime” is being Venezuelan and having tattoos.
Arturo Suarez, in a music video, is now in a notorious prison in El Salvador
“He is not a gang member,” Nelson says, adamantly, “I’ve come to the conclusion that it has to be because of the tattoos. If you don’t have a criminal record, you haven’t committed any crime in the United States, what other reason could there be? Because you’re Venezuelan?”
Arturo, 34, was recording a music video inside a house in March when he was arrested by immigration agents.
He was first taken to a deportation centre in El Paso, Texas, and then, it appears, put on to a military flight to El Salvador.
Nelson Suarez insists his brother Arturo is not a gang member
His family have not heard from him since. Lawyers and immigrant rights groups have been unable to make contact with any of the more than 200 Venezuelan men sent to the CECOT prison, which holds members of the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs.
Tattoo clue to Arturo Suarez’s whereabouts
Nelson learned his brother is – most likely – in CECOT only because of a photograph he spotted on a news website of a group of inmates, with their hands and feet cuffed, heads shaved and bodies shackled together.
A group of inmates are processed to be imprisoned in the CECOT jail in EL Salvador. Pic: Reuters
Nelson Suarez believes this is his brother Arturo Suarez due to his distinctive hummingbird tattoo. Pic: Reuters
“You can see the hummingbird tattoo on his neck,” Nelson says, pointing to the picture. He says Arturo wanted a hummingbird in memory of their late mother. Arturo has 33 tattoos in total, including a piano, poems and verses from the Bible.
It could be that one, or more, of those tattoos landed him at the centre of President Trump’s anti-immigration showpiece. Nelson shows me documents which indicate that Arturo did not have a criminal record in Venezuela, Chile, Colombia or the United States, the four countries he has lived in.
Sky News contacted the White House, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for a response to Arturo’s case but have not heard back.
In March, Donald Trump signed the Alien Enemies Act, a law from 1798 which has been invoked just three times before, in wartime.
It allows the president to detain and deport immigrants living legally in the US if they are from countries deemed “enemies” of the government. In this instance, Mr Trump claimed the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had “infiltrated the United States” and was “conducting irregular warfare”.
Alleged gang members imprisoned in the CECOT jail in El Salvador. Pic: Reuters
Gang symbol tattoos
Immigration officials have centred on certain tattoos being gang symbols. Immigration officers were provided with a document called the “Alien Enemy Validation Guide”, according to a court filing from the American Civil Liberties Union. The document provides a point-based system to determine if an immigrant in custody “may be validated” as a gang member.
Migrants who score six points and higher may be designated as members of the Tren de Aragua gang, according to the document. Tattoos which fall under a “symbolism” category score four points and social media posts “displaying” gang symbols are two points. Tattoos considered suspicious, according to the document, include crowns, stars and the Michael Jordan Jumpman logo.
Jerce Reyes Barrios’s story
Another of the men sent to CECOT prison is 36-year-old Jerce Reyes Barrios, who fled Venezuela last year after marching in anti-government protests. He is a former footballer and football coach.
His lawyer, Linette Tobin, told Sky News that Reyes Barrios entered the US legally after waiting in Mexico for four months for an immigration appointment and then presenting himself at the border.
Jerce Reyes Barrios
She says he was detained in a maximum security prison in the US while awaiting his asylum appointment. But before that appointment happened, he was flown to the El Salvador prison.
Ms Tobin says the DHS deported Reyes Barrios because they designated him a Tren De Aragua gang member based on two pieces of evidence.
The first, she says, is a tattoo of the Real Madrid football team logo surrounded by rosary beads. She has since obtained a declaration from the tattoo artist stating that Reyes Barrios just wanted an image which depicted his favourite team.
Jerce Reyes Barrios’s lawyer says he has a tattoo of the Real Madrid logo surrounded by rosary beads
The second piece of evidence, she says, is a photograph, which she shows me, of Reyes Barrios in a hot tub with friends when he was a college student 13 years ago.
He is making a gesture which could be interpreted as “rock and roll”, but which she says has been interpreted as a gang symbol.
Lawyer Linette Tobin says this gesture has been interpreted as a gang symbol
Distraught family in despair
Reyes Barrios has no criminal record in his home country. “I’ve never known anything like this,” Ms Tobin says.
“My client was deported to a third country and we have no way of getting in touch with him. His family are distraught and in despair, they cry a lot, not knowing what is going on with him. We want him returned to the United States to have a hearing and due process.”
Ms Tobin says she and other lawyers representing men sent to the El Salvador prison are trying to establish a UN working group on enforced disappearances to do a wellness check on them because the prison is completely “incommunicado”.
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17 March: US migrants deported to El Salvador
Sky News contacted the DHS for comment about Reyes Barrios’s case but did not receive a response. The DHS previously issued a statement declaring that “DHS intelligence assessments go well beyond just gang-affiliated tattoos. This man’s own social media indicates he is a member of Tren de Aragua”.
Reyes Barrios has an immigration hearing scheduled for 17 April, Ms Tobin says, which the Trump administration is trying to dismiss on the grounds that he is not in the US anymore.
In the meantime, children he used to coach football for in his hometown of Machiques in Venezuela have been holding a prayer vigil for him and calling for his release.
The secretary of the DHS, Kristi Noem, visited CECOT last month and posed for photos standing in front of inmates behind bars.
Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem visited CECOT in March. Pic: Reuters
“Do not come to our country illegally,” she said, “you will be removed, and you will be prosecuted.” Donald Trump had promised during his election campaign to clamp down on immigration, railing against undocumented immigrants and claiming immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”.
I ask Arturo Suarez’s brother, Nelson, how he felt watching Ms Noem posing in the prison, knowing that his brother might be close by.
“I feel bad,” he says, “I feel horrible, because in those images we only see criminals. With my brother, I feel it is more a political issue. They needed numbers, they said, these are the numbers, and now, let’s throw them to the lions.”
Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Pic: AP
Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s story
The Trump administration has admitted that at least one man sent to the El Salvador jail was sent by “administrative error”. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was living in Maryland, was sent to CECOT despite a judge’s earlier ruling in 2019 that granted him legal protection to stay in the US.
The White House has alleged Garcia is an MS-13 gang member, but his lawyers argued there is no evidence to prove this.
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A federal judge has ordered Garcia must be returned to the US by Monday 7 April. In a post on X, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller referred to the judge as a “Marxist”, who “now thinks she’s president of El Salvador”.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “We suggest the judge contact President Bukele because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador.”
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