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Viewing cable 08DOHA356, ARAB NATIONS CREATE REGIONAL NETWORK TO FACILITATE

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08DOHA356 2008-05-04 11:25 2011-08-24 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Doha
VZCZCXRO4784
RR RUEHTRO
DE RUEHDO #0356/01 1251125
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041125Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY DOHA
TO RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI 0557
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS 0941
RUEHAN/AMEMBASSY ANTANANARIVO 0002
RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD 0212
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 0385
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 0786
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS 1265
RUEHDJ/AMEMBASSY DJIBOUTI 0039
RUEHKH/AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM 0037
RUEHKU/AMEMBASSY KUWAIT 8932
RUEHMK/AMEMBASSY MANAMA 2618
RUEHMS/AMEMBASSY MUSCAT 0214
RUEHNK/AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT 0186
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 0823
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 0507
RUEHYN/AMEMBASSY SANAA 0432
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI 0011
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 0468
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7893
INFO RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0152
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 3177
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 2240
RUEAWJL/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 0033
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1361
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DOHA 000356 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM SNAR AU FR XE MA DJ SU MR UN
SUBJECT: ARAB NATIONS CREATE REGIONAL NETWORK TO FACILITATE 
JUDICIAL AND LAW ENFORCEMENT COOPERATION 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
1. (U) SUMMARY: At a high-level conference of judicial and 
prosecutorial authorities from 22 Arab states, held in Doha 
on April 27 and 28, participants agreed to create a new 
liaison organization to help facilitate mutual legal 
assistance and extradition among their countries.  The 
Government of Qatar offered to host a secretariat for this 
new network, which is inspired by the European experience 
with EUROJUST.  During a press conference held on the first 
day of the conference, the French Minister of Justice and 
Qatari Attorney General announced a bilateral exchange of 
judicial authorities and a joint training program for Qatari 
judges.  The State/INL observer to the conference met on the 
margins with the Minister of Justice of Jordan, who is 
seeking help with his desire to reorganize the powers of 
Jordan's new anticorruption commission.  He also met with the 
Qatari Attorney General to discuss bilateral cooperation in 
the planning for two premier international anticorruption 
events that Qatar will host in late 2009.  END SUMMARY 
 
2. (U) Embassy Amman -see paragraph 7. 
 
--------------------- 
HIGH-LEVEL CONFERENCE 
--------------------- 
 
3. (U) The Government of Qatar (GOQ) and the Government of 
France co-sponsored the Second Regional Conference on Justice 
(Second Conference), held in Doha on April 27-28. 
Representatives attended from 22 Arab states and territories, 
including 15 Ministers of Justice and 20 Prosecutors General 
from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Yemen, 
Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Authority, Iraq, Egypt, 
Sudan, Somalia, Comoros, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, 
Mauritania, Djibouti and Libya.  Participants included 
experts from the UN Development Program-POGAR, UN Office of 
Drugs and Crime and Arab League.  John Brandolino, Senior 
Advisor at UNVIE for State/INL, and Jeffrey Cole, DOJ 
Regional Attache located in Cairo, attended as guests of 
Qatari Attorney General Ali Bin Fetais Al Marri. 
 
4. (U) The Second Conference was a follow-up to a similar 
conference in 2004 that sought to discuss basic and common 
principles found in French and Arab legal systems. 
Organizers accomplished their goal of establishing an 
organization that will help facilitate mutual legal 
assistance and extradition among the participant countries. 
This organization is inspired by the European's experience 
with EUROJUST.  The event included a presentation by Jose 
Luis Lopes da Motan, President of EUROJUST, on the workings 
of that particular body.  Qatar has offered to host a 
secretariat for this new Arab organization. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
5. (U) Qatari Attorney General Al Marri and French Minister 
of Justice Rachida Dati, following their opening statements, 
held a joint press conference to announce a formal program 
for judicial exchanges between the two countries.  They will 
begin this cooperation with the respective placement of 
long-term resident judges within each other's country.  They 
also announced that they will co-sponsor a judicial training 
center for Qatari judges that will involve French trainers. 
 
 
DOHA 00000356  002 OF 003 
 
 
6. (U) Three panel sessions over the two-day conference 
discussed the structures and experiences of judicial and 
prosecutorial authorities in various participant countries, 
and focused specifically on the concept of separation of 
powers, relationship between judicial authorities and the 
police and the use of specialized authorities.  Participants 
recognized that the existing tools for judicial cooperation 
among these countries, which included the Riyadh Convention, 
were outdated and could use upgrading. 
 
7. (SBU) The State/INL rep was approached on the margins by 
Jordan Minister of Justice Aiman Odeh and Ammar Al-Husseini, 
Director for International Cooperation at the Ministry, who 
is seeking advice on his desire to disengage prosecutorial 
powers from Jordan's relatively new national anticorruption 
commission.  The commission was apparently created with the 
expectation that it would prosecute, as well as investigate, 
corruption cases.  He is now finding it difficult to develop 
prosecutorial functions within the commission which are 
wholly separate from the regular judicial/prosecutorial 
authorities in that country.  He thinks it would be best to 
keep the prosecutorial functions consolidated and subject to 
existing ethics and other standards and controls.  The 
Minister is concerned, however, that any move to extract 
prosecutorial functions from the commission might violate the 
UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) (Comment: It does 
not.  UNCAC discusses creation of anticorruption commissions 
that are independent and have proper resources, but leaves it 
to individual countries to determine which powers it will 
give to such commissions. End comment) and that such a move 
will be perceived badly by the international community.  The 
State/INL rep promised to provide information on other 
anticorruption commissions and to follow up with Al Husseini, 
who has worked with State/INL rep in the past on UN-related 
anti-crime issues in Vienna. 
 
8. (U) The State/INL rep also met on the margins with 
Attorney General Al Marri to discuss preparations for the 
UNCAC Third Conference of States Parties (COSP) and the Sixth 
Global Forum on Fighting Corruption (GF VI), which the GOQ 
has agreed to host in November or December of 2009.  Attorney 
General Al Marri assured Brandolino that the GOQ agreed with 
the USG positions shared with Attorney General Al Marri on 
April 10 visit to Doha by State/INL Director David Luna.  He 
agreed that GF VI should be the final Global Forum and with 
our vision on how these two events should be structured.  He 
pledged to work closely with the USG as they prepare for 
these two major international anticorruption events. 
 
9. (SBU) In a separate meeting with Dr. P.F. Rau, a 
Yale-educated Indian advisor to Attorney General Al Marri on 
international affairs, Rau provided insights into the 
operations of the AG's office.  He expressed confidence that 
AG Al Mari would find the necessary resources to make these 
anticorruption events a success.  He advised the USG to be a 
visible but patient partner, and promised to help serve as a 
liaison between the USG and Attorney General Al Marri. 
 
10. (U) COMMENT: Qatar and the participant countries must now 
translate the conclusions of the conference into a process 
that will help strengthen judicial cooperation on a practical 
level.  France's representatives are pleased with its 
coordinating role in this effort, which they hope will 
strengthen bilateral and regional judicial cooperation and 
cast the French system and EUROJUST as examples worthy of 
 
DOHA 00000356  003 OF 003 
 
 
regional attention. 
 
11. The GOQ's sponsorship of the Second Conference and their 
plans to host the UNCAC COSP and GF VI in 2009 is evidence of 
their, and particularly Attorney General Al Marri's, interest 
in creating a role for Qatar in the international justice 
scene.  State/INL will work closely over the next eighteen 
months with Embassy Doha and Attorney General Al Marri to 
prepare for COSP and GF VI, and ensure that their substance 
and process for these events coincides with our vision for 
the two events.  END COMMENT 
RATNEY