[Pietro Calcaterra, a
spokesman for Interpol, confirmed that since 2011, Interpol, which has a staff
of more than 800 and describes itself as the world’s largest international
police organization, has been augmenting its annual budget — about €80 million,
or about $90 million, last year — by turning to the private sector.]
LONDON — Interpol
suspended an agreement with FIFA on Friday that had called for the
international police agency to receive 20 million euros over 10 years to fight
corruption in soccer, citing the American investigations that have ensnared
soccer’s world governing body.
Pietro Calcaterra, a spokesman for Interpol, confirmed that
since 2011, Interpol, which has a staff of more than 800 and describes itself
as the world’s largest international police organization, has been augmenting
its annual budget — about €80 million, or about $90 million, last year — by
turning to the private sector.
The four-year-old deal had raised doubts about the risks of a
conflict of interest and questions about whether it was appropriate for
Interpol to accept millions of euros from FIFA.
Sepp Blatter was re-elected to a fourth term as FIFA’s leader in
2011 just weeks after the agreement was signed, raising questions about whether
he had used the deal to try to deflect accusations about corruption that have
long swirled around his organization.
Mr. Calcaterra declined to comment immediately on the concerns
about any conflict of interest that might have been generated by the agreement
with FIFA.
In May 2011, FIFA agreed to provide about $23 million over 10
years to support the Integrity in Sport program run by Interpol. The program
is meant to provide training and education to prevent fraud and corruption in
soccer, including match-fixing and illegal betting. The contribution was described
at the time as the biggest-ever private donation to Interpol.
Interpol said in a statement on Friday that the organization
would “freeze the use of financial contributions from FIFA.” In the statement,
Interpol’s secretary general, Jürgen Stock, said the decision had been taken
“in light of the current context surrounding FIFA.”
“All external partners, whether public or private, must share
the fundamental values and principles of the organization,” Mr. Stock added.
The statement also lauded the anticorruption program for helping the agency’s
efforts across its 190 member countries to “prevent the manipulation of
sporting events and illegal gambling by criminal groups.”
Also on Friday, the Vatican suspended the acceptance of
charitable donations from Conmebol, the South American soccer confederation,
The Associated Press reported, because the confederation is under scrutiny in
the American investigation.
FIFA said in a statement on
Friday that it was disappointed by Interpol’s decision, and warned that the
move would have negative consequences in the fight against criminal activity in
soccer.
Interpol issued wanted-person alerts on June 3 for two former
senior FIFA officials and four corporate executives, one day after Mr. Blatter
announced that he would resign after 17 years as the body’s president.
The Interpol alerts, issued at the request of the United States,
included a former FIFA vice president, Jack Warner, a soccer official from
Trinidad and Tobago who has been accused of accepting bribes in connection with
the decision to award the hosting of the 2010 World Cup to South Africa.
Interpol’s website notes that its principle source of funding
comes from contributions provided by its 190 member states, including the
United States. But donors have also included the pharmaceutical, tobacco and
technology industries.
The top 10 donors to Interpol last year included FIFA and the
Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, whose successful bid to host the World Cup is
part of a separate corruption inquiry in Switzerland. Other big donors include
the tobacco giant Philip Morris International, which joined forces with
Interpol to combat the trafficking of illicit goods, including the smuggling of
counterfeit cigarettes.
When the deal with Interpol was announced, FIFA said it
was a “milestone” that would enhance the global effort to fight corruption.
“The threat of match-fixing in sport is a major one, and we are committed to
doing everything in our power to tackle this threat,” Mr. Blatter said in a
statement at the time.
@ The New York Times
*
[The police in Uttar Pradesh said Thursday that
they were investigating the accusations against Mr. Verma and his associates.
Amitabh Thakur, a senior police official, went to check on Mr. Singh in his
hospital bed in Lucknow, the state capital, before he died on Monday evening, a
week after he was burned in the dusty town of Shahjahanpur on June 1.]
By Suhasini Raj
NEW
DELHI — They came in the
heat of the late afternoon, two cars jammed with enforcers and police officers
allied with a local dairy minister. They charged into the reporter’s house and
reminded him that he had been warned many times that “he should not write
anything against the minister.”
At least that’s what the reporter, Jagendra
Singh, told a police official on his deathbed, with 60 percent of his body
covered with burns after, he said, the men doused him with gasoline and set him
on fire.
It was payback, he said, for his many posts
on social media linking Ram Murti Verma, the minister of dairy development in
the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, to illegal sand mining and taking
possession of unoccupied land, two underground activities rampant in the state.
“They warned him that they will not leave his
fingers in such a state that they would be able to write anything against the
minister,” said Mr. Singh’s son, Rahul, in a telephone interview on Thursday.
The police in Uttar Pradesh said Thursday that
they were investigating the accusations against Mr. Verma and his associates.
Amitabh Thakur, a senior police official, went to check on Mr. Singh in his
hospital bed in Lucknow, the state capital, before he died on Monday evening, a
week after he was burned in the dusty town of Shahjahanpur on June 1.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called
this week for an independent inquiry into Mr. Singh’s death.
“Given the allegations of police
participation, and India’s poor track record of solving crimes in connection
with reporting on local corruption, the involvement of an independent authority
is essential,” Sumit Galhotra, a research associate for the group’s Asia
branch, said in a statement.
The statement noted that the superintendent
of police in Shahjahanpur, Babloo Kumar, had denied that Mr. Singh was a
journalist and told the organization that Mr. Singh had committed suicide. When
reached later by telephone, Mr. Kumar did not repeat those claims, saying only
that the investigation was ongoing.
Mr. Singh, who had been working in the Hindi
news media for 15 years, had written several Facebook posts in recent months
accusing Mr. Verma of involvement in illegal activities. His fear for his own
safety was apparent, and he said that he had been attacked by the minister’s
loyalists before.
“Ram Murti Singh Verma can have me killed,”
Mr. Singh wrote in a post on May 22. “At this time, politicians, thugs, and
police, all are after me. Writing the truth is weighing heavily on my life.”
While there have been no arrests in the case
so far, the police have filed a complaint against six men, including Mr. Verma,
in the burning of Mr. Singh, according to Mr. Kumar. A special police team has
been set up to investigate the attack.
“Whoever is found guilty, including the minister,
will be arrested accordingly,” said Mr. Kumar, the police superintendent.
“Nobody will be spared.”
Indian journalists say that their safety has
long been compromised, particularly in small towns where the local authorities
can wield enormous power.
According to the Press Council of India, a
statutory press watchdog group, 79 journalists were murdered in the past two
and a half years in India, with very few convictions. The International News
Safety Institute, based in Britain, put the number slightly lower in a report
this year— 69 journalists killed from 2004 to 2014.
That made India the fifth most dangerous
country for journalists, after Iraq, the Philippines, Pakistan and Mexico.
India placed 13th on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ annual global
impunity index from 2014.
Reporting was contributed by Nida Najar.
