MALIAN PRESS REPORTS THAT GOM RELEASED AQIM

S E C R E T BAMAKO 000102

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2020
TAGS: ML PREL PTER
SUBJECT: MALIAN PRESS REPORTS THAT GOM RELEASED AQIM
DETAINEES

Classified By: Ambassador Gillian A. Milovanovic, for reasons 1.4 (b) (
d).




1. (SBU) On February 19, the Malian newspaper l'Independant
carried a front page news story stating that in an
extraordinary session beginning at 6:30 a.m. on the morning
of February 18, the judge presiding over the court of first
instance of Bamako's Commune III released four Al Qaeda in
the Lands of Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) detainees. In his
statement, the judge said the detainees had been arrested in
April 2009 for illegal possession of firearms and, as they
had not been charged with any other crime in Mali, had served
their sentences, and could be released. The four detainees
were listed as Algerian national Mohamed Ben Ali, Algerian
national Tayed Nail, Mauritanian national Beib Ould Nafa, and
Burkina Faso national Houd Karifo. The article noted that
the release of the detainees will facillitate the release of
French hostage Pierre Camatte, whom AQIM has threatened to
execute on February 20 if the four AQIM detainees were not
freed.


2. (S) At a dinner on the night of February 18, French
Ambassador Michel de Reyverand spoke about various aspects of
the Camatte hostage situation on and off throughout the
evening, including about the difficulties encountered with
Camatte's family, elements of whom were estranged one from
another. He received more than half a dozen text messages on
his cell phone and three or four phone calls during the
course of the evening, which he implied were related to the
crisis. When the conversation turned to Malian resolve in
dealing forcefully with AQIM, he said several times and
pointedly that if Mali does not begin to get serious, the
big donors -- France, the European Union, and the United
States -- should jointly threaten them with cutting off all
foreign assistance.


3. (S) On February 19, Algerian DCM Mohamed Seoudi phoned
the Embassy to ask whether the United States had seen the
news report in l'Independant. Seoudi said that the report
had too much detail to be anything but true, but acknowledged
that he had not confirmed its veracity. He said Algeria had
retained up until the very last a shred of hope that Mali
would not release the detainees, as the Algerians had made
numerous appeals to their Malian counterparts that any such a
release would entail a violation of international law and
explaining the irrationality of negotiating with terrorists.
He said he had personally delivered the demarche requesting
the extradition of the two Algerian detainees to the
Secretary General at the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and had been asked to wait. After two months of waiting, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs had informed him that the GOM had
searched all of the regular detention facilities in Mali, and
had not located the individuals Algeria was seeking to
extradite.
MILOVANOVIC