FIRST TRANCHE OF JUDICIAL COOPERATION REQUESTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 006706 SIPDIS SIPDIS JUSTICE FOR DAVID WARNER E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/30/2021 TAGS: EFIN KTFN PGOV SNAR JO SUBJECT: FIRST TRANCHE OF JUDICIAL COOPERATION REQUESTS DELIVERED REF: AMMAN 5953 AND PREVIOUS Classified By: Ambassador David Hale, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Foreign Minister Abdelelah Al-Khatib informed the Ambassador the morning of August 30 that the first tranche of documents in response to pending Department of Justice requests for judicial cooperation was ready for delivery. ¶2. (C) ECOUNS and EXBS Advisor obtained custody of 14 binders of documents later on August 30 from out-going legal advisor of the Foreign Ministry Bishr Khasawneh. ECOUNS maintained custody of the documents until delivering the folders to the Legatt Office at Post where they were secured. ¶3. (C) According to Khasawneh, the folders responded to the U.S. requests relayed in Diplomatic Note 187 (Islamic Relief Agency et al--2 folders),Dipnote 520 (individuals associated with Mujaheddin El-Khalq--11 folders),and Dipnote 987 (Firas Al-Tawil et al--1 folder). He said he expects the documents being gathered in relation to the Safa Group request to be delivered within "one week or two." ¶4. (C) Khasawneh reiterated that the Jordanian government would be unable to provide similar information for cases not related to terrorism. The UN Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism enables the GoJ to lift bank secrecy restrictions on sharing account information, he asserted. However, with regard to other judicial requests related to other types of cases, there are no similar international conventions acceded to by Jordan under which bank secrecy can be lifted. ¶5. (C) LEGATT and ECOUNS reviewed the files, which contain copies of identification documents, financial information including account information, export letters of credit and related documents. ¶5. (C) COMMENT: Success in reaching the end of this long, arduous process comes as a result of intensive and continuous engagement with the highest levels of the Jordanian government. Embassy hopes this finally functional process may ease the handling of future requests. HALE