Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06MANAMA1156
2006-06-27 14:35:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Manama
Cable title:  

COURT RULES CHARGES AGAINST SUNNI EXTREMIST CELL

Tags:  PTER PREL PGOV ASEC BA BILAT CTR POL 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MANAMA 001156 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/27/2016
TAGS: PTER PREL PGOV ASEC BA BILAT CTR POL
SUBJECT: COURT RULES CHARGES AGAINST SUNNI EXTREMIST CELL
UNCONSTITUTIONAL

REF: A. CAIRO 3901

B. MANAMA 0766

Classified by Ambassador William T. Monroe for reasons 1.4
(b) and (d).

-------
Summary
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MANAMA 001156

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/27/2016
TAGS: PTER PREL PGOV ASEC BA BILAT CTR POL
SUBJECT: COURT RULES CHARGES AGAINST SUNNI EXTREMIST CELL
UNCONSTITUTIONAL

REF: A. CAIRO 3901

B. MANAMA 0766

Classified by Ambassador William T. Monroe for reasons 1.4
(b) and (d).

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) Bahrain's constitutional court issued a decision June
26 that the conspiracy charges filed against four Sunni
extremists are unconstitutional, citing a conflict between
Article 157 of the penal code and Article 20 of the
constitution. The constitution requires that only "acts" be
punished while the penal code says participating in an
agreement with the intent to commit a felony constitutes
criminal activity. High profile attorneys Farid Ghazi and
Abdullah Hashem publicly expressed their satisfaction with
the ruling, saying it demonstrated the judicial sector's
independence. Salafi MP Mohammed Khalid said the accused had
no connection to Al Qaida or other terrorist groups.
Meanwhile, a draft CT law continues to bounce between the
full Council of Representatives (COR) and the COR committee
with responsibility for it. The court ruling and lack of
movement on the CT law demonstrate that the Bahraini
government faces serious limitations in using the legal
system to clamp down on suspected terrorists. The Ambassador
will urge senior Bahraini policymakers to develop policy
responses to deal with extremists. End Summary.

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Conspiracy Charges Unconstitutional
--------------


2. (SBU) Bahrain's constitutional court June 26 ruled that
the charges against four Bahrainis accused of planning to
carry out terrorist attacks were unconstitutional. The
ruling effectively ends the prosecution of members of a Sunni
extremist cell originally arrested in June 2004 on charges of
plotting bomb attacks on government, economic, and tourist
establishments. Four cell members - Mohieddin Khan, Yaser
Kamal, Bassam Ali, and Bassam Bokhowa - continued to face
charges, while two others arrested at the same time, Omar
Kamal and Mohammed Saleh, had charges against them dropped in
late 2004. Procedurally, the case against the four now moves

back to the criminal court, which should dismiss the case
based upon the constitutional court decision. No date has
yet been set for the criminal court hearing.


3. (SBU) The court ruled in favor of the arguments of the
lawyers for the accused, who said that Article 157 of the
penal code of 1976, under which the suspects were charged,
conflicts with Article 20 of the constitution of 2002. The
operative passage of Article 157 reads, "A prison sentence
shall be the penalty for any person who participates in an
agreement with the intent of committing any of the felonies
provided for in Articles 147 to 155..." Article 20 of the
constitution says, "There shall be no crime and no punishment
except under a law, and punishment only for acts committed
subsequent to the effective date for the law providing for
the same." The court concurred with the argument that
"agreement with the intent of committing" a felony conflicts
with the constitutional requirement that "acts" be committed.

--------------
Attorneys Express Satisfaction with Outcome
--------------


4. (SBU) Attorneys for the accused publicly greeted the
decision with satisfaction. Farid Ghazi, MP and lawyer for
one of the cell members, told the press that the verdict
"reinforces my trust in the court and shows that judges are
free to make decisions without any interference." Attorney
and politician Abdullah Hashem said publicly that he had been
certain the court would deliver this verdict. He commented
that there are two aspects of any crime - the material and
the abstract. In this case, he claimed, there was no
material aspect, and an intention to commit an act is not a
crime. Salafi MP Mohammed Khalid, an outspoken supporter the
accused, told reporters that by taking the decision, the
courts proved that they are not under any influence. He
stated that the accused had no connection to Al Qaida or
other terrorist groups and never intended to harm public
property. One of the accused, Mohieddin Khan, told the press
that the ruling "proves the Bahraini judiciary is impartial
and does not succumb to external pressures."


5. (C) In a conversation with Poloff prior to the ruling,
Attorney Rabab Al Arrayedh said that she had initiated the

MANAMA 00001156 002 OF 002


constitutional court challenge on behalf of her client
Bokhowa. Ghazi, who represents Khan, and Hashem, who
represents Kamal and Ali, took the opportunity to file
appeals similar to Al Arrayedh's on behalf of their clients.
She said that she incorporated into her strategy a legal
precedent from a 2002 Egyptian constitutional court ruling
that struck down a conspiracy law similar to Article 157.

--------------
CT Law Bouncing Around Parliament
--------------


6. (C) Meanwhile, the elected lower house Council of
Representatives continues to struggle with a draft
counter-terrorism law. The government originally passed the
law to the COR in late 2004, but the COR returned it to the
government, complaining that it employed an overly broad
definition of terrorism and applied penalties that were too
harsh. The law bounced between the government and COR
several times until the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and
National Security Committee agreed to review it. Committee
chair Ahmad Behzad told the Ambassador in April that he was
confident the bill would pass, although he noted that the
committee had changed the name to "Protection of Society
Security Law" to focus public attention on protecting the
people rather than on fighting terrorism (Ref B).


7. (C) Since the time of the Ambassador's meeting, the bill
moved to the full COR but without Article 18, which deals
with conspiracy. The COR decided to return it to the
committee. The bill moved to the COR a second time, and MPs
again returned it to committee, where it now sits. Shia MP
Mohammed Al Shaikh June 26 told Poloff that "no one" in the
COR supports the bill. Sunnis MPs believe it was drafted to
target Sunni Islamists, and Shias oppose it because it is
reminiscent of the old State Security Law of the 1970s-1990s,
under which security organs committed human rights
violations, mainly against Shia Bahrainis. The bill may be
passed as a result of pressure from the government, but at
this time it is unclear if it would include an article
criminalizing conspiracy. Even if it did, that provision
could be found to be unconstitutional, given the June 26
court decision.

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Comment
--------------


8. (C) The constitutional court ruling and uncertain status
of the draft CT law in parliament demonstrate that the GOB
faces serious limitations currently in its ability to use the
legal system to clamp down on suspected terrorists. Given
the Bahraini judicial sector's reliance upon Egyptian laws
and legal experts, news that that the Egyptian government is
looking at the PATRIOT Act as a possible model for a CT law
and has at least two separate committees developing a bill
for parliament (Ref A) could have a beneficial impact in
Bahrain in the longer term. In the meantime, we -- in
coordination with NAVCENT -- will continue to press senior
Bahraini interlocutors on the need to develop policy
prescriptions for dealing with the extremists that both they
and we know are present in the country.

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