Interpol must accept the resignation of its Chinese boss, who is detained in China on charges of accepting bribes, the organisation’s secretary general has said.

Interpol, which coordinates police work across the world, has been “strongly encouraging China to provide us with more details, more information” on what exactly took place when then-director Meng Hongwei was reported missing in early October, Juergen Stock told a news conference at Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France.

The body investigating Meng, China’s National Supervisory Commission, can hold suspects for as long as six months without providing access to legal counsel.

“We have to accept, like we would accept with any other country, that this country [China] is taking sovereign decisions and if that country tells us ‘We have investigations, they are ongoing, and the president has been resigning, he’s not a delegate of the country anymore,’ then we have to accept,” Stock said.

Meng, who had travelled back to China, was reported missing by his wife who had stayed at home in the south-eastern French city of Lyon.

China then informed Interpol that Meng had resigned as the organisation’s president, before saying he had been charged with accepting bribes.

Stock said he had no further details and could only say that the bribery charges were not linked to Meng’s work at Interpol.

“There’s no reason for me to suspect that anything was forced or wrong” regarding the resignation, Stock said.

Meng’s successor is to be appointed later this month at Interpol’s general assembly in Dubai.