CHIEF JUSTICE AND MINISTRY OF JUSTICE DISCUSS WEST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JERUSALEM 000497

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE. NSC FOR ABRAMS/SINGH/PASCUAL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/21/2018
TAGS: KWBG PGOV PREL PTER PHUM KPAL IS
SUBJECT: CHIEF JUSTICE AND MINISTRY OF JUSTICE DISCUSS WEST
BANK COURTS


Classified By: Consul General Jake Walles, per reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary. In November 2007, at PM Salam Fayyad's
request, Chief Justice (CJ) Abu Sharar, Minister of Justice
(MOJ) Ali Khashan, and Attorney General (AG) Ahmad al-Mughani
agreed to establish a court in Jericho to hear major felony
and high level security cases. Abu Sharar told POLOFF and
USAID on March 17 that he no longer supports moving all such
cases to the Jericho court and prefers instead to improve the
eight first instance courts across the West Bank. Deputy
Minister of Justice Ali Abu Diak echoed this opinion to
Poloff and USAID. He said obstacles to access and movement
will prevent transport from across the West Bank to the court
and slow its functioning, leaving unaddressed backlog of
82,000 civil and criminal cases as of January. Minister of
Justice Ali Khashan told POLOFF March 20 that he still wants
to move all felony and high level security cases to Jericho
and hopes to re-open the court there in 45 days. Both Abu
Sharar and Abu Diak said the Hebron and Jenin courthouses
need significant improvements, including upgraded security,
and more coordination between Palestinian police, judges and
trial schedulers. End Summary.

Fayyad Proposes Court in Jericho
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2. (C) In November 2007, at PM Salam Fayyad's request,
Chief Justice (CJ) Abu Sharar, Minister of Justice (MOJ) Ali
Khashan, and Attorney General (AG) Ahmad al-Mughani agreed to
establish a court in Jericho to hear major felony and high
level security cases. Jericho courthouse construction is
nearly complete, pending furniture and equipment that the MOJ
asked USAID to supply. However, Chief Justice of the Supreme
Judicial Council (SJC) Issa Abu Sharar told POLOFF and USAID
on March 17 that he no longer supports moving all such cases
to the Jericho court. He said obstacles to access and
movement will make it difficult for judges, attorneys,
witnesses and defendants to travel routinely from West Bank
cities to Jericho. Abu Sharar added that the Jericho prison
is also too small to serve the entire West Bank. Abu Sharar
instead recommends strengthening the eight courts of first
instance in Jericho, Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus,
Jenin, Tulkaram, and Qalqilya to hear cases from their
respective governates. Although these courthouses need
significant improvements, Abu Sharar said they are accessible
by Palestinians throughout the West Bank.

MOJ Deputy and Court Officers:
How Will We Get to Jericho?
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3. (C) Acting Deputy Minister of Justice Ali Abu Diak told
Poloff and USAID on March 17 that he agrees with Abu Sharar
in opposing the planned consolidation in Jericho and favors
improving the eight first instance courts. (Bio Note: Ali
Abu Diak is a well-respected lawyer who has been in the MOJ
since 2003. He is close to many of the lawyers who appear
before Palestinian courts, but has no significant political
profile. End Note.) Abu Diak said the Jericho court will
not solve the backlog in criminal cases, but suggested it
could serve as a temporary solution until the other seven
courts are improved. Abu Diak said that using the Jericho
court for cases from across the West Bank will require the
construction of a new Jericho prison and improved GoI
cooperation for the PA to transport prisoners and for the
movement of judges, witnesses, and police. He noted that the
GoI has proved helpful only in cases involving the transport
of prisoners charged with threats to Israel security, like
al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members.

MOJ Khashan: Jericho
Offers Safer Trials
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4. (C) By contrast, Minister of Justice Ali Khashan told
Poloff March 20 that he continues to support moving all
felony and high level security cases to the Jericho court,
which he said will increase judicial independence and allow
sensitive cases, especially involving West Bank clans, to be
tried safely far from the involved parties. Khashan said
"judges and security are in place" and he hopes to open the
court within 45 days. While we have not discussed the issue
in detail with Fayyad, we believe he also supports using the
new Jericho court to the greatest extent possible.

Hebron and Jenin Courts:
Improvements Needed
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5. (C) Abu Diak said the PA owns the Jericho, Jenin, and
Nablus courthouses and rents those in Ramallah, Hebron,
Bethlehem, Tulkaram, and Qalqilya. (Note: The Jenin and
Nablus courthouses were built with Japanese funding. End
Note). Abu Diak said the Jenin courthouse is spacious, but
furniture and a security system are still needed. He said
Hebron's rented courthouse is too small to accommodate the
southern West Bank's heavy caseload. Abu Diak also said the
Hebron court tries serious felony cases, which require a
three-judge panel, only one day a week because of the
shortage of judge and the poor coordination between Hebron
police and trial schedulers. The backlog would improve
dramatically, he said, if felony cases were tried three days
a week and court summons were issued in a timely manner.


6. (C) Separately, Abu Sharar recommended the Hebron prison
be moved from al-Dhahariya, a town 45 minutes away, to the
Hebron city center to accommodate trial scheduling in the
southern West Bank. He said as of January 82,000 civil and
criminal cases were pending in the West Bank, including 4,000
felonies over three years old and 36,000 misdemeanors. In
Hebron alone, Abu Sharar said there are 3,500 low level cases
pending. To deal with the backlog, Abu Sharar said his 2008
SJC strategy includes working with the Ministry of Local
Government to assign 15 judges to work on municipal cases
throughout the West Bank, including traffic tickets, and he
welcomed PM Fayyad's initiative to add 200 people to SJC
staff in order to overcome the staffing shortage by the end
of 2008.

Comment
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7. (C) Relations between the MOJ and the SJC (as well as the
AG) are historically strained, which may raise the
temperature of the disagreement over how to use the Jericho
court. Notably, the Chief Justice and Minister are also at
odds over a new judicial training center and whether it will
be led by a judge or within the MOJ. The Minister is under
political pressure for the PA to deliver quickly and wants to
open a new court that can safely hear cases. The CJ sees the
operation of courts as his purview and likely resents the
Minister for usurping his role and effectively expanding his
Ministry's role. However, the practical concerns about
access to the court in Jericho identified by Abu Diak - as
well as Abu Sharar - are shared by many West Bank lawyers and
court officers. PM Fayyad will be the decisionmaker, but
full implementation of his decision may be difficult and time
consuming. In the meanwhile, we will explore how access to
the Jericho court can be facilitated as well as short-term
upgrades for the other courts of first instance. End Comment.
WALLES