Interpol drops red notice against Gregor Haas, lawyer calls for release

Interpol has cancelled a red notice against Gregor Haas, the father of NSW State of Origin front-rower Payne Haas, in a major development his lawyer says should trigger his immediate release and return to Australia a year after he was arrested on allegations of smuggling drugs into Indonesia.

Haas, 47, has been detained without charge in the Philippines since he was captured there at the behest of authorities in Indonesia, who have sought to have him extradited to Jakarta.

Haas pictured inside Camp Bagong, a notorious immigration detention facility in Manila.

The father of nine strongly denies allegations of shipping five kilograms of methamphetamine from Mexico, an amount sufficient to qualify for a death sentence in Indonesia if he were put on trial there and found guilty.

The high-stakes case has the potential to put relations between Australia and two of its key regional neighbours to the test, but the decision by the global law enforcement agency shapes as a significant breakthrough for Haas.

After mounting a rare successful application to Interpol to drop its red notice, his Australian lawyer, Abdul Reslan, has called for Australia to demand his release if he is not set free by the Philippines.

“We now urge the Philippines to ensure the expeditious release and repatriation of Haas to Australia,” he said.

Haas (right) with his NRL star son Payne Haas at the 2019 Dally M awards. Credit: AAP

“We are waiting for Interpol’s decision to be processed in the Philippines to enable his release.

“From our point of view, the Philippines should comply with the prevailing international position and release him. If not, Australia should demand his immediate release.

“Ultimately, he is required to be deported to the country of origin where he holds a passport, which is Australia. He should not be detained by any country.”

Reslan said Haas was struggling physically and mentally, without the appropriate medical care, in Manila’s filthy Camp Bagong immigration detention facility, where he had lost close to 30 kilograms last year.

He had been the subject of an Interpol red notice, but it was removed on June 2.

A red notice is issued by Interpol and sent to law enforcement agencies around the world to find and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.

“The red notice contained inaccurate and unfounded allegations and operated in violation of various international conventions. As a consequence, Interpol agreed to set aside the red notice and delete the relevant data,” Reslan said.

“Ultimately, Interpol elected not to be used as a vehicle to deliver up a global citizen to foreseeable torture or death.”

Haas has been detained in the Philippines for more than a year.

In a bid to convince the Philippines to hand him over and avoid a diplomatic firestorm with Australia, which staunchly opposes capital punishment, Indonesian officials last year promised Haas would not face the death penalty.

There has been a change in the presidency in Indonesia since then, with former military general Prabowo Subianto succeeding Joko Widodo, and there is no certainty about that commitment being honoured.

Indonesian officials have pushed to have Haas extradited in exchange for Alice Guo, a former mayor in the Philippines who was captured in Indonesia last September and sent back to Manila to face allegations of links to Chinese criminal groups, which she has denied.

“We are aware Indonesia is applying pressure on the Philippines and there is some concern that such influence will leave him unjustifiably languishing in a cell for years,” Reslan said.

Contacted about the rescinded Interpol notice, an official at the Indonesian embassy in Manila said: “We are waiting for the authority in Jakarta to follow up”.

Haas’ submission to Interpol made the case that his red notice had breached the organisation’s rules on processing of data with inaccurate information, as well as violating rights conferred under the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also argued that the notice was consistent with other Interpol rulings.

Interpol’s decision is noteworthy because of the high bar required to revoke a red notice, which is an international alert for police to arrest a wanted fugitive.

Phillip Gibson, a defence lawyer specialising in international crime with Sydney firm Nyman Gibson Miralis, said it was not common to have red notices withdrawn unless they had been issued at the request of an authoritarian nation such as Russia or China.

“In my experience, it’s a difficult process. It’s not that easy to achieve when the requesting state is a democracy, and has got a reasonable system of justice,” he said.

Haas’ predicament is a delicate matter for the Albanese government, which has prioritised ties in South-East Asia and with Indonesia in particular as China attempts to assert its influence in the region.

Subianto agreed to a deal with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese late last year for Indonesia to release the five remaining members of the Bali Nine who were serving life sentences over a heroin smuggling plot in 2005.

Haas’ arrest in the Philippines.Credit: Nine News

Australia and Indonesia have their own extradition treaty, but Australian law forbids the transfer of a person over an offence that carries the death penalty unless there is an undertaking that it “will not be imposed or, if imposed, will not be carried out”. The Philippines’ extradition agreements contain similar terms preventing the handover of people when execution is on the table.

“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to an Australian detained in the Philippines,” a spokesperson said. “Owing to our privacy considerations we are unable to provide further comment. ”

Haas was accused by Indonesian investigators of being a member of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and of trafficking drugs from Guadalajara to Jakarta in December 2023, concealing them in ceramic tiles.

He has emphatically denied the allegations, saying he has never been to Mexico and that his arrest came after a business dispute he had in Indonesia in relation to buying a resort.

In December, a judge in the Philippines ordered Haas’ release after he was recognised as a Filipino citizen as well as an Australian, a determination made after his mother produced documentation showing she was born in the country.

But he has remained locked up in the notorious detention centre as the Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration appealed and had the court order overturned last month.

Haas’ partner and mother of his children, Uiatu “Joan” Taufua, has been in custody in Queensland since a 2022 road incident in Bonogin in the Gold Coast hinterland in which three people died. She has been committed to stand trial on three counts of manslaughter and has not yet entered a plea.

with Karuni Rompies

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