Interpol president resigns amid Beijing probe

Associated Press

LYON, France

Interpol says a Chinese official who was reported missing has resigned as head of the international police agency. The update came after Beijing announced Meng Hongwei was under investigation in China.

Interpol said Sunday night that Meng had resigned as president of the agency’s executive committee, effectively immediately. It did not say why. He was elected to lead the international police agency in 2016 and his term was not set to end until 2020.

Meng is China’s vice minister of public security. His whereabouts and status have been mysteries since his wife reported Friday that she had not heard from him since he went to China at the end of September.

The disciplinary organ of China’s ruling Communist Party said Sunday night that Meng is “currently under the monitoring and investigation” of China’s new anti-corruption body, for unspecified legal violations.

Interpol, based in Lyon, said the senior vice president of its executive committee, Kim Jong Yang of South Korea, would become acting president.

Earlier Sunday, Grace Meng said her husband sent her an image of a knife before he disappeared during a trip to their native China.

Making her first public comments on the mystery surrounding Meng Hongwei’s whereabouts, Mrs. Meng told reporters in Lyon on Sunday she thinks the knife was her husband’s way of trying to tell her he was in danger.

She says she has had no further contact with him since the message that was sent Sept. 25. She says four minutes before Meng shared the image, he had sent a message saying, “Wait for my call.”

His wife’s plea underscored how China’s system of shady and often-arbitrary detentions can ensnare even a senior public security official with international standing, leaving loved ones uninformed and in a panic.

Meng’s unexplained disappearance in China, which had prompted the French government and Interpol to make their concerns known publicly, threatened to tarnish Beijing’s image as a rising Asian power.