Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07THEHAGUE164
2007-01-30 06:48:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy The Hague
Cable title:  

JUSTICE MINISTER RAISES ROMMY INVESTIGATION

Tags:  SNAR KCRM CJAN PREL NL 
pdf how-to read a cable
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RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHTC #0164 0300648
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 300648Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8009
INFO RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHAT/AMCONSUL AMSTERDAM 2160
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

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