GLOBAL PATRIOT: VICTIM'S RELATIVES INQUIRE INTO

C O N F I D E N T I A L CAIRO 001517 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR NEA FO AND NEA/ELA OSD FOR PDASD COULTER MANAMA PLEASE PASS TO NAVCENT FOR VADM GORTNEY E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/17/2018 TAGS: PARM PREL MOPS EG SUBJECT: GLOBAL PATRIOT: VICTIM'S RELATIVES INQUIRE INTO PAYMENT, STRESS FAMILY'S FINANCIAL HARDSHIP REF: A. CAIRO 1403 ¶B. CAIRO 1277 ¶C. CAIRO 1259 ¶D. CAIRO 1079 AND PREVIOUS Classified By: Ambassador Margaret Scobey per 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) On July 14, two relatives of the widow of Mohammed Affifi, the victim in the Global Patriot incident, called us unexpectedly to request a meeting, saying that they had traveled from Port Suez to Cairo to see us. Before the meeting, we advised MOD U.S. Affairs Deputy Chief Colonel Abdullah Tawfiq that we would be seeing the family; Col. Tawfiq passed the information to Assistant Minister of Defense for Policy MG Al-Assar. On July 14, DOJ attache, OMC JAG officer and poloff met with the widow's brother, Hussein Mohammed Abd El Ayl, and a relative of the widow's mother, Mohammed Fathi Mohammed, a lawyer in Port Suez, who has assumed the role of spokesman for the family. (Note: We last met with these relatives May 27, per ref D. End note.) ¶2. (C) Mohammed Fathi Mohammed said that the widow and her two small children are in desperate financial straits, and expressed the family's disappointment that the U.S. has not yet been able to provide any payment. Mohammed noted that the family continues to receive many calls from lawyers in the U.S. wanting to represent them in a suit against the USG, but he emphasized that the family prefers to deal directly with the embassy. Mohammed asked us to explain the reason for the delay in providing payment when the family is suffering after losing its sole breadwinner, Mr. Affifi. Mohammed asked whether the family could do anything to speed up the process. ¶3. (C) We expressed our condolences to the family, and without mentioning any sum, said that some funds would soon be available to alleviate the family's difficulties. We stressed that the matter is a priority for us and that senior U.S. officials have traveled to Egypt to discuss this issue with the MOD. We committed to continued contact with the family to brief them on developments concerning the payment. ¶4. (C) Comment: Per ref A, we remain convinced of the need for relatively limited funds to hire a local attorney to work with an Egyptian court to ensure that the payment is provided directly to the widow and children of Mr. Affifi through court-supervised accounts, and to draft a litigation release for the family to sign. Without funds for a local attorney, we will face great difficulty in ensuring that the payment reaches Mr. Affifi's widow and children in accordance with Egyptian law, and in securing a release to pre-empt future litigation. Moreover, a court-supervised account could protect the widow from claims and possible threats by other family members. SCOBEY