Heritage’s Ted Bromund, a senior research fellow in Heritage’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, has acted as an expert witness on behalf of five individuals accused of crimes by corrupt foreign governments. All five individuals were released thanks in part to his participation.

The individuals were arrested as a result of the International Criminal Police Organization’s (Interpol) Red Notice system. “A Red Notice,” according to Interpol, “is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.”

Red Notices are often, if wrongly, described as international arrest warrants. In fact, they are meant to alert other nations of criminal fugitives, but do not require proof of criminal conduct. “A Red Notice has no independent evidentiary or probative value,” said Bromund in one of his testimonies, as reported by The Atlantic.

“It’s a practice which runs a serious risk of allowing Vladimir Putin to pick his victims in the United States,” writes Bromund.

One of the most notable cases is that of Alexey Kharis, who is married and has two young children, fled to the United States from Russia on a legal visa. He applied for asylum after the Russian government performed a “corporate raid” by taking over his business and bankrupting it.

The Russians then issued a Red Notice for Kharis, stating that Kharis—the victim of the government’s abuse—had engaged in financial fraud. Based on this Red Notice, Kharis was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2017.

“The fact that there was, as of June 4, 2015, a Red Notice on Mr. Kharis proves only that the Russian Federation filled out the appropriate Interpol form,” said Bromund in his testimony on behalf of Kharis.

The decision on Kharis’s case emphasized Bromund’s role in securing Kharis’s release, stating that “Dr. Bromund's report analyzed in detail why Kharis's Red Notice, in particular, was likely fraudulent. … The constitutional guarantee of due process requires more.”

In other words, Kharis’s detention occurred without a proper examination of why he had been detained in the first place.

“We commend Dr. Bromund for his excellent work and expertise in this area and his dedication to using that expertise to expose Russian abuse of its innocent citizens,” said Nile Gardiner, director of Heritage's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom and Bernard and Barbara Lomas fellow.

Bromund joined Heritage in 2008 after spending nine years as associate director of International Security Studies at Yale University. In addition to his work on Interpol, Bromund regularly studies and writes on Anglo-American relations, U.S. and British relations with Europe and the European Union, America’s leadership role in the world, and international organizations and treaties.