US embassy cable - 05DAMASCUS5790

C O N F I D E N T I A L DAMASCUS 005790 
 
SIPDIS 
 
PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, KJUS, SY 
SUBJECT: DISMISSAL OF SYRIAN JUDGES POORLY PLANNED, BADLY 
EXECUTED 
 
REF: DAM 5433 
 
Classified By: CDA Stephen A. Seche for reasons 1.4 b/d 
 
1.  (C) In the wake of the October dismissal of 81 judges on 
corruption charges (reftel), Poloff spoke to Ghimar Deeb, a 
Syrian lawyer who works as a legal consultant for UNDP in 
Damascus.  Deeb said there were two ways to view the 
dismissals.  From the average Syrian's perspective, the 
dismissal of four percent of Syria's 2,125 judges was 
long-needed and welcome, given the rampant corruption that 
affects most people's daily life. 
 
2.  (C) From a legal perspective, however, the process used 
to identify and dismiss the judges violated constitutional 
norms, Deeb said.  The Minister of Justice selected the 
judges after visiting courts throughout Syria and listened to 
word-of-mouth reports, Deeb said.  (Note:  We have heard from 
other contacts that the SARG security services were also 
involved in investigating judges and contributing names to 
the list.)  At a separate meeting with Charge and PolChief, 
Deeb also noted that the subsequent decree dismissing the 
judges, which was signed by President Bashar al-Asad, 
violated the process for such dismissals contained in the 
Syrian Constitution, and left judges without a way to appeal 
their cases or plead that errors had been made.  Deeb 
highlighted the case of one dismissed judge, whom he knew 
well, who was an elderly man from Latakkia, until recently 
serving as a lower court judge in Damascus.  Deeb said the 
man was honest and of very modest means, taking the bus to 
work every day. 
 
3.  (C) Despite questions about the process, the public was 
so fed up with corruption that it that it would probably 
welcome further dismissals, said Deeb, noting that the 
government could also justly disbar "hundreds" of lawyers on 
grounds of corruption.  It is difficult to predict when 
further dismissals might occur or which Syrian authority 
would initiate such a move, Deeb said. 
 
4.  (C) Comment:  We have heard other limited anecdotal 
evidence that some of the 81 dismissed judges were not 
corrupt and that the manner in which the dismissals took 
place lacked transparency and due process.  Like many 
political and economic reform efforts undertaken during 
Bashar al-Asad's term of office, this one bears the hallmark 
of poor planning and execution, and has invited criticism -- 
often by the very reformers who had called for action -- that 
the specific steps taken included ill-advised aspects and 
uncertain prospects for enhancing real reform.  (Note:  Deeb 
graduated in 1995 with a law degree from the University of 
Damascus and worked as an assistant public prosecutor from 
1996 to 1997.) 
SECHE