US embassy cable - 05PARIS104

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 000104 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR S/WCI -- AMB PROSPER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/06/2015 
TAGS: FR, PGOV, PINR, PREL, KISL 
SUBJECT: GTMO AND DJAMEL BEGHAL TRIAL UPDATES 
 
REF: A. PARIS 8729 
     B. PARIS 8918 
 
Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt for reaso 
ns 1.4 b and d. 
 
1.  (C) Summary: The investigation against four former GTMO 
detainees (reftels A and B) appears to be proceeding well; 
all appeals for pre-trial release have been denied and the 
investigating judges feel confident that the trial, likely to 
begin this summer, will result in conviction.   However, in a 
related action, France's highest appeals court for criminal 
matters overturned two previous courts' decisions  and 
referred, to the Paris Court of Appeals for action, a 
complaint brought by the families of two ex-GTMO detainees 
requesting an investigation into their detention. 
 
2.  (C) Summary continued: Separately, the public trial 
against suspected terrorist Djamel Beghal and five 
accomplices accused of plotting to attack US interests in 
France, including an attack against the Embassy, began 
January 3.  Thus far, the trial has been highlighted by the 
defiance of the defendants during questioning.  Post will 
continue to report on these cases, as well as that of Mohamed 
al-Jundi, the Syrian driver of the two French journalists 
kidnapped in Iraq (septel).  Al-Jundi filed suit against U.S. 
forces alleging torture while in U.S. custody following his 
liberation from insurgent captivity.  End summary. 
 
EX-GTMO DETAINEES 
----------------- 
 
3.  (S) The ongoing investigation against the four ex-GTMO 
detainees currently in French custody is progressing well and 
the trial is likely to begin this summer.  Thus far, all 
appeals by defense attorneys for the release of their clients 
from pre-trial detention have been rejected.  A recent 
defense appeal to obtain transcripts from alleged 
interrogations by French authorities while the detainees were 
still at GTMO was similarly denied.  The anti-terrorism 
judges investigating the case communicate regularly with 
Post, and they are confident the evidence obtained by French 
authorities since the four were remanded to French custody is 
overwhelming. 
 
4.  (C) France's highest appeals court, the Cour de 
Cassation, ruled January 4 that the Paris Court of Appeals 
would have to address a complaint filed by the families of 
two former GTMO detainees seeking a criminal investigation 
into certain unknown and unnamed persons (undoubtedly U.S. 
officials) for the illegal detention of the two in 
Guantanamo.  The complaint had initially been filed in 2002 
and was dismissed by a judge in Lyon.  The Lyon Court of 
Appeals upheld this initial decision in 2003, arguing that 
that the detention could not be investigated because it was 
the result of an American military operation covered by a 
unanimously adopted UN resolution.  However, yesterday's 
appeal court decision indicated that the complaint could not 
be dismissed without investigating whether there was evidence 
related to the complaint that could be applicable under 
French law.  The complaint is now remanded to the Paris Court 
of Appeals, which technically could rule with the Lyon 
decisions, but will likely have to open an investigation 
itself or designate a judge to investigate the complaint. 
Media reports indicate that requests for U.S. judicial 
explanations are likely.  It is not yet clear how this 
complaint could affect the French investigation against the 
detainees.  Post will continue to follow the developments of 
this case closely. 
 
DJAMEL BEGHAL TRIAL 
------------------- 
 
5.  (C) The trial of six men suspected of plotting in Afghani 
terror training camps to target U.S. interests in France -- 
specifically, to bomb the US Embassy in Paris in 2001 -- 
began January 3.  The proceedings have thus far been 
dominated by combative responses from the defendants. 
Suspected cell leader Djamel Beghal, a 39-year-old 
Algerian-born French citizen who was arrested in the UAE in 
July 2001 after leaving Afghanistan, told authorities in 
Dubai that he was the head of an al-Qaeda-linked cell intent 
on attacking US interests in France, including the U.S. 
Embassy in Paris; however, Beghal later retracted his 
confession and told the chief judge in the trial that he had 
given it under "methodical torture."  In Beghal's testimony 
he referred to himself in the third person, responded to the 
judge's questions with questions of his own, referred at one 
point to the proceedings as an "Inquisition court," and 
refused to explain his reasons for visiting Afghanistan. 
Kamel Daoudi, arrested in Britain and extradited to France in 
September 2001, posed multiple definitions for the term 
"jihadist" and proclaimed his innocence as a terrorist, 
despite being arrested in possession of texts by Ayman al 
Zawahiri and other Islamic extremists, claiming that "when 
someone reads 'Das Kapital,' he is not necessarily a 
Marxist."  French authorities allege that Beghal admitted in 
questioning that Abu Zubaydah gave the order to attack U.S. 
interests in an Afghani terror camp in March 2001; both 
Beghal and Daoudi deny having met Zubaydah.  The trial is 
expected to last seven weeks, and if convicted, the six 
defendants face up to 10 years in prison. 
Leach