UAEG ANNOUNCES NEW LAW TO COMBAT TERRORIST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 001371

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NSC FOR GARY PETERS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/27/09
TAGS: PTER EFIN ETTC PREL PGOV TC
SUBJECT: UAEG ANNOUNCES NEW LAW TO COMBAT TERRORIST
FINANCING

REF: ABU DHABI 1026


1. (U) Classified by Deputy Chief of Mission Richard A.
Albright for reasons 1.5 (B) and (C).


2. (C) UAE Central Bank Governor Sultan Nasser Al-Suweidi
announced that the UAEG was nearing completion of a new
terrorist finance law at the close of the Second
International Hawala Conference on April 5 (ref). While
conference participants generally welcomed the new
legislation focused on terrorist financing, the Governor's
statement and subsequent news articles about the law were
short on specifics. Executive Director of the Central
Bank's Anti-Money Laundering and Suspicious Case Unit
(AMLSCU) Abdul Rahim Al-Awadi briefed Econoff April 27 on
the new law, and said that it gave the Central Bank more
authority to freeze assets and undertake investigations
related to terrorist finance.

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Scope Of The New Law
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3. (U) The new law is based on the various UN declarations
to combat terrorism, the UN Convention for the Suppression
of the Financing of Terrorism (1999),and takes into
consideration the Arab Convention on the Suppression of
Terrorism, signed at the Arab League Secretariat in Cairo
in 1998.


4. (C) Al-Awadi listed the many problems that the Central
Bank has encountered freezing terrorist assets and
investigating suspected terrorist financiers under the
current money laundering law. Law No. 4 of 2002 requires a
predicate offense -- an underlying illicit activity -- to
trigger a Central Bank/law enforcement response, but the
new law will provide the Central Bank extraordinary powers
to freeze assets of any suspect individual immediately,
whether or not the funds can be linked to a crime. Under
Law No. 4, the Central Bank may freeze assets of suspect
individuals for seven days only, and must present evidence
to the Public Prosecutor to continue freezing the accounts
or release the funds. He noted that such a restriction was
impractical in terrorist finance cases; "terrorism is like
a cancer to our society and is a threat to our national
security -- we must be free of all legal restrictions to
deal with terrorist cases as required."

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Status Of The Law
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5. (C) Al-Awadi said that the Central Bank recognized the
need for a law focusing on terrorist financing and separate
from Law No. 4 of 2002 on money laundering. An inter-
agency committee has met regularly during the last six
months to create the new law, and the committee -- of which
Al-Awadi is a member -- already has received the Minister
of Justice's approval to submit the draft legislation to
the Federal Cabinet for final review. The new law also
must be approved by all the rulers of the seven emirates,
but Al-Awadi did not think the process would take more than
a couple of months; "we are all of like mind on these
issues."

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Comment
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6. (C) While Post has not seen a draft of the proposed
law, we are encouraged by Al-Awadi's assurances that the
new legislation will provide the Central Bank more
authority to freeze indefinitely the assets of terrorist
financiers in the UAE. The new law also should provide
clear guidelines for investigating and prosecuting
financial crimes related to terrorism. Despite the UAE's
progress in recent years combating money laundering and
terrorist financing, the Central Bank's AMLSCU is not yet
fully lashed up with UAE law enforcement and prosecutorial
authorities, and the process of initiating and advancing
financial investigations here has been cumbersome. It is
noteworthy that the new law also will provide procedures
for the seizure and forfeiture of non-bank assets of
suspected terrorist financiers, including securities, cars,
buildings, etc.


7. (C) At our request, the UAE Central Bank has frozen
indefinitely a number of bank accounts since 9/11 related
to suspected terrorists -- and in spite of the requirements
of Law No. 4 to produce evidence to the Public Prosecutor
or release the funds. The Central Bank occasionally has
come under fire from the Ministry of Justice to respect Law
No. 4 and release funds, and this has -- in some instances
-- been a source of tension in our bilateral efforts to
combat terrorist financing. We hope the new law will
provide the political cover the Central Bank needs to
legitimate its current practices and fend off pressure to
release funds before a proper investigation can be
initiated.

Wahba