HUMAN RIGHTS MINISTER VISITS RULE OF LAW COMPLEX

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 002817

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/22/2017
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV KJUS IZ
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS MINISTER VISITS RULE OF LAW COMPLEX

REF: BAGHDAD 2360

BAGHDAD 00002817 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR MATT TUELLER FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND
(D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Minister of Human Rights (MOHR) Wijdan Salim
stressed on August 13 that the jurisdiction of judges at the
Rule of Law Complex (ROLC) in Baghdad's Rusafa district
should be expanded to include processing of all detainees
held onsite at the Rusafa detention center to prevent
indefinite detentions. During her tour of the ROLC, Minister
Wijdan met with detainees, Chief Judge Monem Mohammed Torach
(the Chief Judge overseeing trials at the onsite courthouse),
Ministry of Justice (MOJ) Iraqi Corrections Service (ICS)
Director General Juma'a, Deputy Prosecutor Sa'ad Alwan
Abdulla, Law and Order Task Force (LAOTF) Director Michael
Walther, and LAOTF Chief of Staff Charles Abner. (Note: Vice
Presidents Tareq al-Hashimi and Adel Abdul Mehdi also visited
the ROLC on August 15. End note.) She welcomed LAOTF
Director Walther's offer to provide an office for the
Ministry of Human Rights' (MoHR) staff at the ROLC and
facilitate her viewing of a trial. END SUMMARY.

--------------
DETAINEES DEMAND DUE PROCESS
--------------


2. (C) During her August 13 tour of the ROLC, Human Rights
Minister Wijdan Salim visited two sections of the MOJ's
Rusafa detention center and discussed with some of the
approximately 5,000 detainees the status of their cases and
treatment during detention. (Note: The capacity of Rusafa
will be expanded to 7,000 soon. End note.) From within the
40 cells in Rusafa 5, which is the section of Rusafa
designated for newly-arrived detainees, detainees (held in
groups of up to 15 within each cell) complained to the
Minister that they had not had their cases reviewed by an
investigative judge and lacked access to defense attorneys.
While some detainees alleged they were abused at detention
sites where they were held previously, detainees did not
allege abuse at Rusafa itself.


3. (C) At Rusafa 8, consisting of temporary, air-conditioned
detention units holding 25 to 30 detainees each, Minister
Wijdan recognized some of the 773 detainees transferred from
other detention facilities she had inspected. One of the
detainees whom the Minister had met at Ministry of Defense's
(MoD) 3rd Brigade, Sixth Division detention facility alleged
to her that some investigative judges responding to detainees
queries regarding their trial dates have told them
"Inshallah" (God-willing).


4. (C) The detainees at both sections of Rusafa prison
complained to Minister Wijdan in front of MOJ ICS Director
General Juma'a and LAOTF Director Walther, who accompanied
her. Some expressed frustration that they had lodged the
same complaints to Interior Minister Jawad Bolani and other
Iraqi officials when they had visited Rusafa in prior weeks;
however, they had not seen progress on their cases. (Note:
Since opening in May, the ROLC has conducted judicial review
of 2270 individual cases, released 360 detainees, and has held
77 trials. On July 10, Minister Bolani, Higher Juridical
Council President and Chief Justice of the Federal Supreme
Court Medhat al-Mahmoud, Finance Minister Bayan Jabr, Acting
Justice Minister Safa al Safi, Deputy National Security
Advisor Safa, and Baghdad Operations Command Commander
Lieutenant General Abud Kanbar toured the ROLC in conjunction
with a Letter of Agreement (LOA) signing ceremony that
committed the GOI to spend 48 million USD to fund ROLC
expenses through December 31 (reftel). End note.)

--------------
DETAINEE PROCESSING AND TRACKING
--------------


5. (C) Noting that under the Iraqi Code of Criminal Procedure
it is not permissible to hold detainees beyond six months for
investigation, Minister Wijdan stressed to ROLC Chief Judge
Monem the importance of moving forward with judicial
processing of all detainees at Rusafa. She asked Chief Judge
Monem several times, "You have six months between the
investigation and the trial, so what happens if there is no
trial?" (Note: The six month rule does not apply to cases
that potentially carry the death penalty. End note.)


6. (C) Chief Judge Monem said that his court currently had
jurisdiction over approximately 2,100 detainees held at the
ROLC, after having recently begun taking cases from Fallujah,
Mahmoudiya, and Diyala. He noted that there were 27 new
judicial teams being formed to increase judicial review

BAGHDAD 00002817 002 OF 003


capacity. Eighteen of the teams will review cases from the
Kharkh side of Baghdad (west of the Tigris riverbank),while
nine of the teams will review cases from the Rusafa side of
Baghdad (east of the Tigris riverbank). Minister Wijdan
argued that the jurisdiction of judges at the ROLC needed to
be expanded to include all detainees held onsite at the
Rusafa detention center -- regardless of where their cases
originated -- to prevent indefinite detentions. LAOTF Chief
of Staff Abner, commenting on the possibility of expanding
the ROLC's jurisdiction, explained to the Minister that Chief
Justice Medhat must approve expanding the venue of the ROLC
to apply to all detainees held at Rusafa.


7. (C) In a separate conversation with the Minister, LAOTF
Director Walther noted that Chief Judge Monem has agreed to
organize the records of all detainees held at Rusafa such
that detainees with no records are released, and the oldest
cases are moved to the front of the line for review. (Note:
To review a detainee's case, Chief Judge Monem needs
jurisdictional authority over a case, as well as access to
the case file. LAOTF officials estimate that 80 percent of
the detainees at the ROLC do not have case files located
onsite. Many case files are still located at other detention
facilities and there are detainees without case files. End
note.)


8. (C) Deputy Prosecutor Sa'ad showed the Minister an MOJ
database with the names and detainee numbers of all the
detainees at Rusafa. Sa'ad pulled up the records of
detainees whose names the Minister recorded during her walk
through Rusafa.

--------------
TRIALS AND EVIDENCE COLLECTION
--------------


9. (C) Minister asked to view a trial at the ROLC. She told
Chief Judge Monem and Deputy Prosecutor Sa'ad that every day
her ministry receives letters complaining of a lack of judges
and trials, and she needed to know how to respond. She
stated her belief that it is "a disaster" that anyone can be
arrested based on verbal accusations of terrorism by another
person. Chief Judge Monem told the Minister that there is a
procedure in which investigative judges write to police
stations to ask if detainees have confessed to them.


10. (C) Minister Wijdan responded that witness statements
should be backed up with more evidence and detainees should
have access to a defense attorney before their trials.
Detainees, she asserted, will be scared to speak freely with
investigative judges if police officers who threatened them
are present during questioning. The minister also discussed
with LAOTF Director Walther the problem of police officers
not being trained to write reports that can be used to build
detainee case files.

--------------
FUTURE MOHR AND ROLC COORDINATION
--------------


11. (C) LAOTF Director Walther agreed to the Minister's
request to open a Human Rights Ministry office within the
ROLC to improve coordination between the ministry and the
ROLC. LAOTF Chief of Staff Abner told the Minister he would
be honored to have her return to the ROLC to view a trial.
He also informed the Minister that the ROLC is an open court
that has security arrangements to allow anyone to attend a
trial, and all trials are video-taped.


12. (C) Minister Wijdan told PolOff that she considered her
visit to Rusafa to be "a very good trip," and in a separate
conversation on August 18, the Minister said she wanted to
follow up with LAOTF Director Walther on opening the MOHR
office at the ROLC.

--------------
COMMENT
--------------


13. (C) Minister Wijdan, while critical of the pace and scope
of detainee processing at the ROLC, also demonstrated high
interest in collaborating with officials at the ROLC to bring
about the improvements she advocated during her visit.


14. (C) Expanding the ROLC court's jurisdiction to cover all
detainees at Rusafa and transferring their respective case
files from other detention facilities would enable onsite
judicial review for the entire detainee population. The
ROLC's judicial review capacity must also be increased to
account for the thousands of additional cases that broadened

BAGHDAD 00002817 003 OF 003


jurisdiction would add to the ROLC court's docket. (Note:
Chief Justice Medhat told LAOTF Director Walther that he
would bring ten more judges to the ROLC -- in addition to the
thirteen judges currently residing in secure apartments at
the ROLC -- as soon as there is living space onsite for them.
End note.) Post and MNF-I will continue to work with the
Iraqi government to strengthen the ROLC's capacity and
coordinate with ROLC officials to help establish a Human
Rights Ministry presence at the complex. END COMMENT.
CROCKER