The Man Who Knocked on His Own Door

After serving as President of Interpol for two years — indeed a fact of unprecedented gravity — 孟宏伟 (Mèng Hóngwěi) resigned in absentia in October 2018 via Chinese officials, in consequence of he being detained and accused of taking bribes by Chinese anti-corruption authorities. His unwilling disappearance, if nothing else, may actually have helped his fellow collaborators — not necessarily Chinese — to hide and bury their role and responsibilities in the filthy war for equating the international law to the “law with Chinese characteristics”. Apparently, under 孟宏伟 (Mèng Hóngwěi)’s Presidency, Interpol has issued an avalanche of “red notices” against any kind of “disobedient” people — not only Chinese — so one may think that plenty of Arcovazzis in the global family of the “law and order” gang have lost a meticulous technocrat, a zealous executor of orders, a reference point, and, hopefully (but not too likely), also the “extrajudicial licence” to perpetrate abuses worldwide. The last one was probably against him himself, so as to represent a mystic nemesis. In the end, he knocked on his own door — and, like in Kafka’s Trial, he was not given a fair trial. He probably saw no other choice to give his family a future.

Since her husband’s disappearance at the end of September 2018, 格蕾絲‧孟 (Grace Mèng) (pictured above) and her two young sons kept living in France under 24-hour police protection. Photo: Bruno Amsellem/Divergence for Le Monde.