JUSTICE MINISTER RAISES ROMMY INVESTIGATION

UNCLAS THE HAGUE 000164 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/UBI AND L/LEI JUSTICE FOR OIA - JFRIEDMAN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR KCRM CJAN PREL NL SUBJECT: JUSTICE MINISTER RAISES ROMMY INVESTIGATION ¶1. (SBU) Summary. Justice Minister Hirsch Ballin raised concerns with the Ambassador on January 25 about whether U.S. law enforcement officials had violated Dutch rules on the use of criminal informants during the Henk Rommy Ecstasy trafficking investigation. The Minister passed the Ambassador a letter from him to Attorney General Gonzales requesting clarification. Hirsch Ballin stressed that he considered this a matter of grave concern. The Ambassador indicated his understanding that the USG had not violated Dutch rules, and that the Department of Justice had provided comprehensive responses to the Ministry's questions on this issue. He undertook to relay the letter to the Attorney General. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) Minister Hirsch Ballin raised the Rommy issue during a January 25 meeting with the Ambassador, noting that he had briefly discussed this with Attorney General Gonzales during Gonzales' late October visit to The Hague. (Note. After a multi-year investigation, Henk Rommy was convicted in Federal Court in New York in September 2005 of conspiracy to import Ecstasy into the U.S., and sentenced to 20 years in prison. End note.) Referring to the Ministry's 2001 letter denying a U.S. mutual legal assistance (MLAT) request to use a Dutch criminal informant to infiltrate the Rommy organization, Hirsch Ballin said the Dutch had received information that the U.S. had nevertheless gone forward with a criminal informant on Dutch soil. If this information were correct, he said, it would be a matter of grave concern which could jeopardize bilateral cooperation. He indicated that his specific questions about U.S. activities in the Rommy case were included in his letter to the Attorney General. The text of the letter has been faxed to DOJ's Office of International Affairs and to EUR/UBI. The original is being pouched to DOJ. ¶3. (SBU) The Minister turned to Alexander Koning, Chief of the Office of International Judicial Assistance, to provide additional details. Koning said that Rommy's attorney had sent the Minister a letter alleging that the criminal informant in the case had operated in the Netherlands during the course of the investigation. He said two key questions were unresolved: whether DEA's informant had approached Rommy to set up a deal while in the Netherlands; and whether the participants in several wiretapped phone conversations recorded in New York had been present in the Netherlands at the time of the conversations. Global Issues Chief, who accompanied the Ambassador, indicated her understanding that DOJ had addressed these questions in previous correspondence with Koning. ¶4. (SBU) The Ambassador said it was understandable that Rommy's attorney would grasp any straw to raise doubt about his client's guilt. He asked whether the ministry could explain what evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, they were aware of that any wrong-doing had taken place. The Minister did not provide specifics, but said that he considered the allegations credible. He added that there was no question that our bilateral law enforcement cooperation was positive, but stressed that a ministry decision refusing a legal assistance request had to be honored. The Ambassador agreed that the relationship was mutually valuable, and assured the Minister that it was his intention to ensure that it remained solid. ¶5. (SBU) Comment. In several rounds of correspondence over the past year, DOJ has provided detailed information, in response to MOJ staff requests, to support the USG position that U.S. law enforcement officials did not act improperly on Dutch soil. It is clear that despite DOJ's assurances, Minister Hirsch Ballin, like his predecessor, Piet-Hein Donner, is reluctant to dismiss the defense's allegations and publicly express confidence that the U.S. did not violate Dutch rules in the course of the Rommy investigation. Hirsch Ballin stressed that he took the issue extremely seriously, and that it could have an adverse impact on future bilateral cooperation. It is unfortunate that the Ministry has now elevated this issue, which had become dormant in recent months, to the political level. Embassy will continue to address the MOJ concerns and reiterate that U.S. government agencies did not violate Dutch law during this investigation. ARNALL