Interpol has rejected Malaysian police’s request to issue a red notice against Sarawak Report editor-in-chief Clare Rewcastle Brown.

A red notice is akin to an international arrest warrant where member states are informed about an individual wanted for extradition.

In a letter to UK-based NGO Fair Trials International, Interpol secretary-general Jurgen Stock confirmed that the his organisation had rejected Malaysia’s request.

“Whilst Interpol does not usually comment on specific cases or individuals, in light of the significant press interest in this case we can confirm that Interpol’s general secretariat did receive a red notice request for Clare Rewcastle Brown from Malaysian authorities.

“In line with our standard operating procedure, a review was conducted and, on Aug 9, the request for the red notice was refused,” said Stock.

Stock added that Interpol had also asked all of its member states not to use the organisation’s channels with regard to Rewcastle Brown’s case.

“All 190 member countries were informed of the decision and advised not to use Interpol’s channels in this matter and also requested to remove any data from their national databases,” he said.

The letter dated Aug 27 and addressed to Fair Trials International’s executive director Jago Russel, was in response to his query dated Aug 25.

Rewcastle Brown, an investigative journalist based in the UK, had doggedly covered alleged misappropriation of Malaysian state-owned 1MDB and multi-billion ringgit deposits into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s accounts.

On Aug 4, Malaysian police issued an arrest warrant against Rewcastle Brown on grounds of ‘activities detrimental to democracy’ and ‘publishing false information’.