Interpol chief Meng Hongwei resigns after detained in China

The international police organisation Interpol announced Sunday that it has received the resignation of its Chinese chief Meng Hongwei, who has been missing since September 25 and is suspected by Beijing of “violating the law”.

Meng has resigned “with immediate effect” and Senior Vice President Kim Jong Yang of South Korea has become acting president, Interpol said in a statement.

Meng, the first Chinese president of Interpol, was last heard from on September 25 as he left Lyon, where the police agency is based, for China.

Earlier on Sunday, Meng Hongwei's wife, Grace, said her husband sent her an image of a knife before he disappeared during a trip to their native China.

Making her first public comments on the issue, Grace Meng told reporters in Lyon, France, that she thought the knife was her husband's way of trying to tell her he was in danger.

She said she has had no further contact with him since the message that was sent on September 25. Grace also said four minutes before Meng shared the image, he had sent a message saying: "Wait for my call."

Grace Meng would not speculate on Sunday on what might have happened to him.

Asked if she believed that he has been arrested, she said: "In China, what happened, I'm not sure."

She read a statement during her press conference in Lyon, but would not allow reporters to show her face, saying she feared for her own safety and the safety of her two children.

Beijing, which had remained tight-lipped about Meng’s fate since French officials disclosed his disappearance on Friday, said in a one-line statement that Meng “is currently under investigation on suspicion of violating the law”.

Interpol also said in its statement that it will elect a new president for the remaining two years of the current mandate at its general assembly to be held in Dubai on November 18-21.