'OSP's claim on INTERPOL Red Notice is misleading' - Ken Ofori-Atta lawyers

Lawyers for former Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta have accused the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) of making false and misleading claims about the status of an INTERPOL Red Notice issued against their client.

The legal team, led by Justice Kusi-Minkah Premo, issued a detailed response on November 24, 2025, outlining what they say are the correct facts behind the suspension of the notice.

According to the lawyers, INTERPOL published a Red Notice for Ofori-Atta on June 5, 2025, at the request of the OSP through Ghana’s National Central Bureau (NCB).

They say this happened during the same week their client underwent surgery in Rochester, Minnesota, while several ongoing proceedings between him and the OSP were still active.

On June 11, 2025, the legal team filed an application with INTERPOL’s Commission for the Control of Files (CCF), seeking the deletion of the Red Notice.

In their filing, they argued that the notice violated Articles 2 and 3 of INTERPOL’s Constitution, claiming it infringed on Ofori-Atta’s right to health and was influenced by political motives.

They said the OSP withheld facts and disregarded their client’s rights, including making threats about “bringing Ofori-Atta into Ghana at the time of the OSP’s choosing.” The lawyers also said this conduct breached his rights under Ghana’s Data Protection Act.

The press release explains that on June 24, 2025, the CCF wrote to confirm that the application was admissible and allowed the legal team to file additional submissions. Between September 8 and November 3, 2025, the lawyers submitted further evidence to support their claim that the Red Notice violated INTERPOL’s rules and requested its immediate suspension.

The lawyers state that on November 17, 2025, the Red Notice was removed from INTERPOL’s website. Two days later, on November 19, they were informed by the CCF that it had decided to suspend access to the Red Notice and block it from the website while it continued its full examination of the case.

According to the legal team, the CCF took this provisional action because it had initial doubts about whether the notice complied with INTERPOL’s rules, based on information submitted by them and by Ghana’s NCB.

However, on the same day the CCF announced the suspension, the OSP released a public statement suggesting that details of Red Notices are “often redacted” during ongoing proceedings.

Ken Ofori-Atta’s lawyers rejected this claim, calling it “manifestly erroneous” and accusing the OSP of either misunderstanding INTERPOL procedures or intentionally misleading the public.

They stressed that the Red Notice was not “redacted” but blocked, a measure they say is not routine and only taken when INTERPOL determines that the required conditions for publication have not been met.

The legal team argued that if the OSP understood INTERPOL’s guidelines, it would not have made such claims and should have encouraged the public to consult INTERPOL’s own procedures on how CCF reviews are conducted.

The lawyers further said the OSP’s press release failed to mention that the CCF had suspended the notice specifically because of concerns about whether the notice complied with INTERPOL’s legal framework.

They noted that such a decision affects all 196 INTERPOL member countries and is only taken when serious issues of compliance arise.

They added that the CCF’s decision was formally communicated to both their team and Ghana’s NCB on November 19, and insisted that the OSP cannot ignore the ruling or attempt to downplay its significance.

They warned that the OSP’s statement risks misleading the public and feeding into what they described as ongoing political persecution and human rights violations against their client.

The former Finance Minister’s lawyers have asked the OSP to correct what they call factual errors and misleading claims in its earlier statement.

Read the full statement below:









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AK/BAI