DEVELOPMENTS IN CASE OF IDRISS BOUFAYED AND FELLOW REGIME

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TRIPOLI 000467

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR NEA/MAG AND DRL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM LY
SUBJECT: DEVELOPMENTS IN CASE OF IDRISS BOUFAYED AND FELLOW REGIME
CRITICS

REF: A) TRIPOLI 158, B) TRIPOLI 218, C) TRIPOLI 161 (NODIS),D) TRIPOLI 165 (NODIS),E) TRIPOLI 332, F) TRIPOLI 411

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1. (C) Summary: Eleven members of a group of self-described
dissidents were convicted on June 10 of planning to foment a
rebellion against the "people's authority system" and of meeting
with an official from a foreign government; sentences ranged
from 6 to 25 years imprisonment. They were not/not convicted on
related weapons possession charges. Two of the group were
released on May 27 and June 10, respectively; the fourteenth
individual has not been seen in prison or at court proceedings
since his arrest last year. A human rights contact who is
working with the convicted individuals on an appeal was
optimistic that the sentences would be reduced; however, a
recent EU demarche to the GOL on the subject was ill-received by
the GOL, which characterized the case as a strictly internal
matter. European missions have received no further instructions
on whether or how to further pursue the issue. One of the
convicted men carries Danish citizenship; the Danish Consul
General has been rebuffed in his attempts to seek access to him
and admitted frankly that his efforts had been greatly
complicated by the GOL's recent decision to ban the importation
of Danish products and prohibit Danish companies from taking
part in Libyan infrastructure projects in retaliation for the
republishing of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in
Danish newspapers earlier this year. The GOL's strong response
to the EU's demarche on the subject, together with Post's
experience in the el-Jahmi case, suggests that it may be prudent
to see how the appeal fares before making a formal intervention
in this case. End summary.

JUMA'A BOUFAYED RELEASED


2. (C) Human Rights Watch (HRW) and London-based Libyan
opposition website Libya al-Mustaqbal reported in late May that
Juma'a Boufayed, brother of self-described regime critic Dr.
Idriss Boufayed, had been released. Muhammad Tarnesh (strictly
protect),Executive Director of the Human Rights Society of
Libya (HRSL - affiliated with the quasi-governmental Qadhafi
Development Foundation),confirmed to P/E Chief on June 2 that
Juma'a Boufayed was released from the Abu Salim prison in
Tripoli on/about May 27 and had returned to his family home in
Ghariyan.


3. (C) Libyan security officials arrested Idriss Boufayed and
eleven other individuals on February 16, 2007 to disrupt a
demonstration in Tripoli's Green Square that had been scheduled
for February 17, the first anniversary of riots in Benghazi.
Opposition websites reported that Juma'a Boufayed was not
involved in planning the protest, but was subsequently detained
along with Abdulrahman al-Qutawi after he gave an interview
about his brother's arrest. There had been concerns, prompted
in part by reports on opposition websites, that Boufayed had
died in detention. The fourteen faced three criminal charges,
each of which potentially carried the death penalty: attempting
to foment rebellion against the "people's authority system";
possession of weapons for the purpose of fomenting a rebellion;
and conducting unauthorized communications with an official of a
foreign government.

ADEL HUMAID RELEASED; ELEVEN OTHERS CONVICTED & SENTENCED


4. (C) HRW, parroting Libya al-Mustaqbal, reported June 12 that
another detainee, Adel Humaid (five Humaid brothers were charged
in the case),was released on June 10; the HRSL's Tarnesh
confirmed the release to P/E Chief on June 12. Citing reports
from two unidentified individuals who observed the courtroom
proceedings in Tripoli, Libya al-Mustaqbal also said a state
security court convicted 11 of the 14 men implicated in the case
of planning to overthrow the government and of meeting with an
official from a foreign government. (Note: As reported ref B,
Idriss Boufayed and al-Mahid Humaid met with Poloff on February
12, 2007 to discuss the status of domestic opposition to
al-Qadhafi's regime and plans to stage the February 17
demonstration. They were subsequently arrested and the Charge
was convoked by the MFA to receive a strong warning against
Post's contact with internal oppositionists and dissidents (refs
C-D - NOTAL),a subject of ongoing friction with the GOL.
Opposition websites have previously reported that Boufayed's
Ghariyan-based family has been able to attend the court hearings
and Post believes Boufayed's family is the single source of
Libya al-Mustaqbal's reporting. End note.) The court acquitted
the men of related weapons possession charges.


5. (C) The convictions were as follows: Dr. Idriss Boufayed - 25
years; al-Mahdi Humaid - 15 years; al-Sadiz Salih Humaid - 15
years; Faraj Humaid - 15 years; Ali Humaid - 15 years; Ahmad
Yusef al-Ubaidi - 6 years; 'Alaa al-Dirsi - 6 years; Jamal
al-Haji - 12 years; Farid al-Zuwi - 6 years; Bashir al-Haris - 6

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years; and al-Sadiq Qashut - 6 years. At this point, two
detainees have been released (Juma'a Boufayed and Adel Humaid),
11 have been sentenced (above) and one - Abdulrahman al-Qutawi -
has not been seen in prison or at trial proceedings since he was
arrested with Juma'a Boufayed.

APPEAL EFFORT UNDERWAY


6. (C) The HRSL's Tarnesh confirmed to P/E Chief June 12 that
convictions had been handed down and that Adel Humaid had been
released. Tarnesh, who was angry about the severity of the
sentences, said he was assisting Idriss Boufayed and the other
11 convicted individuals with the process of appealing the
verdicts and sentences. He was optimistic that the sentences
would be reduced, noting that it was "culturally normal" for
courts to reduce harsh sentences on appeal, and believed some of
those who received lesser sentences might be released outright
during the appeal process. It was not clear whether Tarnesh was
assisting Boufayed and the others on their appeals in a personal
capacity or as head of the HRSL. Tarnesh had no further
information concerning the whereabouts of the missing fourteenth
detainee, Abdulrahman al-Qutawi, but said he had continued to
make inquiries.


7. (C) Tarnesh indicated that the HRSL and QDF were working to
secure the release of Idriss Boufayed from the Sabratha
Hospital, where he is reportedly undergoing treatment for
advanced cancer (HRW reports that it is lung cancer),on
humanitarian grounds. As reported ref E, the QDF claimed on
April 6 in its first public statement on the case that it had
facilitated Boufayed's transfer to Sabratha Hospital for
"specialized treatment" through mediation with the Attorney
General's office. A report in the pro-government al-Watan
newspaper in late May had suggested that Boufayed had been
released from hospital in late May on humanitarian grounds
related to his illness; however, Tarnesh said Boufayed remained
at Sabratha Hospital and that security officials remained
outside his room. (Note: As reported ref F, Post has
experienced a parallel dynamic in the case of detained human
rights activist Fathi el-Jahmi, whom the GOL claimed to have
released, but who remains in de facto detention at the Tripoli
Medical Center, where security officials control access to his
room. End note.) Tarnesh said the HRSL and QDF continued to
work to secure the release of Boufayed, whose condition he
described as "not critical, but requiring constant medical
care". Explaining the severity of Boufayed's sentence, Tarnesh
likened his case to that of Fathi el-Jahmi, saying security
officials and other, unspecified elements of the GOL "hated"
Boufayed because of his attempts to organize opposition to
al-Qadhafi's regime. (Note: Tarnesh knows Boufayed personally
and has visited his family several times in Ghariyan since his
arrest last year. End note.)

EUROPEAN UNION DEMARCHES GOL ON BOUFAYED CASE, EL-JAHMI & DEATH
PENALTY


8. (C) U.K. Poloff David Clay told P/E Chief June 15 that the
European Union (EU) had demarched the GOL on June 1 concerning
Idriss Boufayed, the case of detained human rights activist
Fathi el-Jahmi and to register opposition to the continued use
of the death penalty in Libya. The French ambassador,
representing Slovenia (which holds the EU Presidency, but does
not have representation in Libya),delivered the EU's points to
MFA Secretary for European Affairs Abdulati Obeidi on June 1.
Stressing Libya's respect for the sovereignty of other states'
internal affairs, Obeidi expressed "great surprise" that the EU
had raised the death penalty and the el-Jahmi and Boufayed
cases. Describing those issues as "purely internal Libyan
matters", he made it clear that the GOL considered the EU's
intervention inappropriate and would not offer a further
response. EU missions in Tripoli have received no further
instructions on whether or how to pursue any of the three
subjects of the demarche. Separately, Danish Honorary Consul
General George Wallen told P/E Chief on June 11 that his efforts
to secure access to Jamal al-Haji, a member of the Boufayed
group who holds Danish citizenship, had been "greatly
complicated" by the fact that the GOL recently imposed a ban on
importation of Danish products and prohibited Danish companies
from taking part in Libyan infrastructure projects in
retaliation for the republishing of cartoons depicting the
Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers earlier this year. Wallen
was strongly rebuffed in his initial efforts to see al-Haji and
was awaiting further instructions from Copenhagen, which he
candidly described as "confused" about whether to press the
issue.


9. (C) Comment: That the individuals, after 16 months in mostly

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incommunicado detention, have been convicted for the "crime" of
planning to stage a peaceful protest is reprehensible. Despite
his analysis of the GOL's motivation for handing down a harsh
sentence against the ailing Boufayed, Tarnesh appeared
relatively optimistic that the QDF would be able to push for his
release on humanitarian grounds; however, Tarnesh offered no
specifics for the other ten men. The GOL's strongly negative
response to the EU's demarche on the subject, together with
Post's experience in the el-Jahmi case, suggests that an
intervention by the U.S. at this juncture - be it public or
private - would likely hurt, rather than help, the effort to
reduce the convicted mens' sentence or secure their release.
End comment.
STEVENS