China's anti-graft watchdog said late on Sunday that the Chinese authorities were investigating Meng Hongwei, who heads the global law enforcement organization Interpol, for suspected violations of the law.
Meng, who is also a vice minister of public security in China, had been reported missing after traveling from France, where Interpol is based, to China, and his wife has been placed under police protection after receiving threats.
Interpol announced Sunday that it had received Meng's resignation. The agency said it would elect a new president at a meeting in Dubai in November. In the meantime, South Korean Kim Jong Yang will serve as acting president.
Meng's wife 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 mystery surrounding's whereabouts, Grace Meng told reporters in Lyon, France, on Sunday she thinks the knife was her husband's way of trying to tell her he was in danger.
She says she has had no further contact with him since the message that was sent on Sept. 25. She says four minutes before Meng shared the image, he had sent a message saying, "Wait for my call."
She says she hasn't heard from him since and does not know what happened to him.
"This matter belongs to the international community," Meng told a press conference in English.
She kept her back turned to the reporters present, and refused to be photographed out of fear for her safety.
French police were investigating what is officially termed in France a "worrying disappearance."
The French interior ministry said on Sunday that it had "no information" on the latest developments concerning Meng.
Meng had lived with his wife and two children in Lyon since being elected Interpol president in 2016.
The agency's secretary general Juergen Stock, who oversees day-to-day operations, said Saturday that it was seeking "clarification" on his whereabouts from Chinese authorities.
Beijing has so far declined to address Meng's disappearance.
It is the latest high-profile disappearance in China, where a number of top government officials, billionaire business magnates and even an A-list celebrity have vanished for weeks or months at a time.
Speculation has mounted that Meng, who also serves as a vice minister of China's public security ministry, may have been swept up in a broad anti-corruption campaign led by President Xi Jinping.
The Chinese effort to track down corrupt officials abroad, known as Operation Fox Hunt, has led to claims in some countries that Chinese law enforcement agents have been operating covertly on their soil without the approval or consent of local authorities.
