TERRORIST FINANCE: SPAIN ON DOMESTIC DESIGNATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 002272 SIPDIS SIPDIS EEB/ESC/TFS (DBENDANA),NEA/I (JKONDOS),S/CT (TDROZDENKO) E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/18/2017 TAGS: EFIN KTFN PTER ETTC PREL SP SUBJECT: TERRORIST FINANCE: SPAIN ON DOMESTIC DESIGNATION OF IRAQI FORMER REGIME ELEMENTS REF: SECSTATE 166402 Classified By: DEPUTY CHEIF OF MISSION HUGO LLORENS FOR REASONS 1.4 (b) AND (d) ¶1. (C) EconOff delivered reftel demarche to Area Specialist Laura Martinez from the MFA's Directorate of Counter-Terrorism on December 18. Martinez expressed appreciation for the information and said that she would share it with law enforcement and intelligence channels. She agreed to provide any information that Spain may have on these individuals, but she noted that Spain would only apply these designations if the EU decides to do so. All designations in Spain follow a centralized EU process. ¶2. (C) On a related matter, Martinez told EconOff that MFA was currently conducting internal discussions with the Ministry of Interior and the Attorney General to institutionalize a domestic process to propose terrorism finance designations directly to the UN. She said that these discussions had been underway for more than a year, protracted by arguments from the Attorney General's Office that these designations could constitute a presumption of guilt without a fair trial. AGUIRRE