SHIFT IN DE-BA'ATHIFICATION CONTROVERSY TO APPEALS

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 000192 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/18/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL IZ SUBJECT: SHIFT IN DE-BA'ATHIFICATION CONTROVERSY TO APPEALS PROCESS, COR APPOINTING NEW AJC Classified By: Acting DCM Gary A. Grappo, for reasons 1.4 b and d. ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Attention on the de-Ba'athification controversy shifted January 26 to the official appeals process for the 512 candidates disqualified by the Accountability and Justice Commission (AJC). It is unclear to what extent the proposal by Badr Bloc leader Hadi al-Amiri, based more on political consensus of the party blocs, was still getting traction. COR efforts to finally constitute the AJC also received attention, with contacts indicating the COR could act as early as January 26 to appoint the seven commissioners to the Board. Supreme Court Chief Judge Medhat al-Mahmoud confirmed that there had been 54 appeals as of midday January 24. Medhat said the seven judges were each taking a group of the appeals and reviewing them independently. There were unconfirmed media accounts reporting that 54 disqualified candidates have been reinstated to the candidate rolls. Saleh al-Mutlaq told poloff he had appealed the IHEC decision, through the Electoral Judicial Panel, but had not yet appealed the AJC decision directly through the Cassation Chamber. He confirmed that he had not been reinstated. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) Attention on the de-Ba'athification controversy shifted January 26 to the official appeals process for the 512 candidates disqualified by the Accountability and Justice Commission (AJC). It is unclear to what extent the proposal by Badr Bloc leader Hadi al-Amiri was still getting traction. COR efforts to finally constitute the AJC also received attention, with contacts indicating the COR could act as early as January 26 to appoint the seven commissioners to the Board. Supreme Court Chief Judge Medhat al-Mahmoud confirmed that there had been 54 appeals as of midday January 24. Medhat said the seven judges were each taking a group of the appeals and reviewing them independently. There were unconfirmed media accounts reporting that 54 candidates have been reinstated. CHIEF JUDGE EXPLAINS APPEALS PROCESS -------------- ¶3. (C) Supreme Court Chief Judge Medhat Mahmoud told Pol M/C January 24 that President Talabani had requested his view by telephone on whether the Accountability and Justice Commission (AJC) as currently constituted was legally empowered to take actions under the AJC law. Medhat said that question was one of the two fundamental grounds on which candidates were appealing their disqualifications to the Cassation Chamber, the seven-judge panel set up to hear appeals of AJC decisions. He indicated that the question would be answered in the course of the appeals process, since the judges would inquire into the specifics of the AJC,s formation, lack of COR endorsement for its members, and identity of its members (Identity would also raise the conflict of interest issue, given that "Acting Commissioner" Chalabi and the "Acting" Executive Director al-Lami are also running as candidates). ¶4. (C) Medhat confirmed that there had been 54 appeals as of midday January 24. Medhat said the seven judges were each taking a group of the appeals and reviewing them independently. These reviews included formally requesting evidence from the AJC to support the original disqualification decisions. According to Medhat, the Cassation Chamber is made up of two Shia, three Sunni, and two Kurds (also Sunnis). 54 CANDIDATES REPORTEDLY REINSTATED -------------- ¶5. (C) Unconfirmed media accounts, citing Rasheed al-Azzawi, a member of the COR oversight committee on Qa member of the COR oversight committee on de-Ba,athification, are reporting that 54 candidates initially disqualified by the AJC have been reinstated after they presented documents proving they have no links to the Ba,ath Party. It is unclear if these 54 are the same 54 who initially appealed their cases to the Cassation Chamber, or if this is coincidental. We are working to verify this information and determine its relation to the appeals process. NOTE: Saleh al-Mutlaq told poloff he had appealed the IHEC decision, through the Electoral Judicial Panel, but had not yet appealed the AJC decision directly through the Cassation Chamber, and has not been notified of any reinstatement. END NOTE.) POLITICAL CONSENSUS TO APPOINT NEW AJC -------------- ¶6. (C) Iraqiyya Coalition bloc leader Jamal al-Batikh told poloffs January 25 that the GOI and COR Speakers concluded a deal to expedite the establishment of a new, "legitimate" AJC; the deal included a slate of 7 nominees for AJC commissioners, which began to circulate informally at the COR yesterday. Batikh said the slate was headed by Sadrist Trend MP Falah Shanshal (eligible since he isn,t running for parliament). He complained bitterly that the whole slate was dominated by "ISCI, Sadrists and the kinds of people who weren,t objective on the issue of the Ba,ath." ¶7. (C) Batikh said that Shanshal was lobbying the COR to get traction for voting on the new commissioners. According to Batikh, the idea of parties/lists replacing candidates on the list without affording them the opportunity to appeal (a key element in the Hadi al-Amiri proposal) would compound the injustice against those on the list of 500. ALL BARRED IRAQIYYA CANDIDATES PLAN APPEAL -------------- ¶8. (C) Batikh said that all 70 Iraqiyya Coalition list candidates included on the de-Ba,ath exclusion list had submitted appeals to the Cassation Chamber, or were planning to. He didn't think the Chamber would conclude its work in time to allow these candidates to begin their campaigns on January 30. ¶9. (C) According to other COR contacts, two of the nominees for AJC commissioner date back to a list that the government submitted to the COR and that was refused a couple of months ago. Batikh indicated that there was still a lot of jockeying over who would be appointed to the AJC. Osama Tikriti, IIP bloc leader (Sunni) told poloff that the ethnic makeup of the nominees would be three Shi,a, two Sunni, and two Kurds. HIGH-LEVEL MEETINGS EMPHASIZE LAW, APPEALS PROCESS -------------- -------------- ¶10. (C) These January 25 developments build on high-level meetings held January 23-24. Rowsch Shaways told visiting Assistant Secretary Feltman January 24 that President Talabani, Speaker Samarrai'e, PM Maliki, and the Deputy Prime Ministers had met earlier the same day to discuss De-Ba'athification efforts ahead of the March 7 election. (NOTE: It is unclear if both Vice Presidents attended the meeting. END NOTE.) Shaways reported that they agreed to press for creation of a new AJC to take the place of the ad-hoc commission headed by Ahmed Chalabi. Shaways predicted That the commission would be constituted "very soon." (COMMENT: We believe Shaways means that the participants supported the notion of COR endorsement of a new list of seven AJC commissioners. END COMMENT.) Shaways echoed other senior officials in noting that the 500-odd candidates already on the list must seek redress through the appeals process. This meeting followed a Presidency Council Meeting, with the PM, held the evening of Jnuary 23, which emphasized similar themes, according to a contact in the PM's office. SOME CANDIDATES APPEAL IHEC DECISION -------------- ¶11. (C) IHEC Chairman Faraj al-Haydari told Pol/C January 25 that IHEC continues to receive appeals from some of the 500 candidates excluded by IHEC January 19, following AJC determinations. He said that IHEC plans to exclude roughly 75 candidates who presented fraudulent education certificates, and that he has early reports from the Ministry of Defense that some 800 candidates will likely need to demonstrate proof of their resignation from the military ahead of the election. Haydari also stated that the delays caused by the de-Ba'athification controversy have been worrying him, but IHEC plans to finish its review of the candidate list within the next 10 days to allow the formal campaign period to begin. HILL