The international policing organization chose a South Korean as its next president after Western diplomats lobbied against Aleksandr V. Prokopchuk, a Russian candidate.
BRUSSELS — Interpol elected a South Korean police veteran as its next president on Wednesday, in the face of pressure from Western diplomats who said choosing the Russian candidate who had been considered the front-runner could jeopardize the independence of the world’s largest international policing organization.
The South Korean, Kim Jong-yang, was elected at Interpol’s annual conference in Dubai, the group announced on Twitter. Elections are held in secret and require a two-thirds majority. No country has a veto.
American and European officials were lobbying behind the scenes early this week to prevent a senior Russian security official, Aleksandr V. Prokopchuk, from winning the organization’s presidency. The Russian government has tried for years to use Interpo l and its global police network to track down and arrest political enemies and dissidents living abroad.
Human rights groups said that electing Mr. Prokopchuk would be seen as rewarding the Kremlin for those efforts. They warned that it would undermine confidence in Interpol and make it susceptible to political interference.
That turned Wednesday’s vote into an unusually closely watched diplomatic event. The Kremlin accused its adversaries of meddling in the elections of an independent international body, while opponents countered that Russia was trying to hijack Interpol.
That tense back-and-forth came at a difficult time for Interpol, which has faced controversy over its handling of the disappearance in September of its president at the time, Meng Hongwei of China. The Chinese government later produced a resignation letter in his name and acknowledged that it had secretly arrested him on unspecified corruption charges.
