EFFORTS TO VISIT AYMAN NOUR CONTINUE; APPEAL DATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L CAIRO 001809 SIPDIS SIPDIS NSC STAFF FOR SINGH E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/23/2016 TAGS: PHUM KDEM EG SUBJECT: EFFORTS TO VISIT AYMAN NOUR CONTINUE; APPEAL DATE SET FOR MAY 18 REF: A. CAIRO 972 ¶B. CAIRO 861 Classified by ECPO Minister Counselor Michael Corbin for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: The Embassy's attempts to visit imprisoned opposition leader Ayman Nour have been unsuccessful so far, but will continue. The Canadians are leading a new multilateral effort to see Nour, in which the U.S., Australia, and a number of EU countries are participating. Meanwhile, the Court of Cassation has agreed to hear Nour's appeal on May 18. End summary. ¶2. (C) After numerous inconclusive interactions with the Ministry of Interior in January and February, the Embassy was finally told in mid-March that any requests by U.S. diplomats to visit Ayman Nour should be submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On March 21, we submitted two separate diplomatic notes requesting visits to Nour by visiting NEA DAS Carpenter and poloff. The notes were flagged and acknowledged by the MFA during a March 22 conversation between NEA DAS Carpenter and Assistant Minister for American Affairs Salama Shaker. The Embassy will also submit next week a request to visit Nour through the office of the Public Prosecutor, a channel used by the families of Egyptian prisoners, including Nour's. ¶3. (C) In addition, after encouragement from Emboffs, an informal group of Cairo's "like minded" diplomats will submit next week a joint request to visit Nour. The request will be submitted by the Canadian Embassy, which obtained clearance from Ottawa to take the lead, and will include the U.S., a number of EU states, and Australia. ¶4. (SBU) Meanwhile, Egypt's Court of Cassation announced that it will hear Nour's appeal on May 18. The appeal hearing, set less than five months after Nour's conviction, appears to have been fast-tracked on the court's docket. We remain in close touch with Nour's defense team and his spouse, Gameela Ismail and will report further septel on the legal prognosis of the case. ¶5. (C) Comment: The GOE is obviously in no hurry to grant foreign diplomats access to Nour, though it has also been careful not to explicitly refuse requests. We did not experience similar problems obtaining permission to visit Saad Eddin Ibrahim during his imprisonment in 2002, but his status as an AmCit gave us a pretext we do not have with Nour. We intend to keep "spamming" the GOE with visit requests until we receive permission. End comment. RICCIARDONE