This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 004502 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, EUR/PGI, EUR/SE 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/IC/TIPOFF, CA/VO/L/C 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/03/2014 
TAGS: KCRM KVPR PGOV PHUM PREF SMIG TU AU PINR TIP IN TURKEY
SUBJECT: TIP IN TURKEY: TURKISH-AUSTRALIAN ANTI-TRAFFICKING 
COOPERATION HITS SNAG 
 
(U) Classified by Polcounselor John Kunstadter; reasons: 1.4 
(b,d). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY.  In November 2003, an Australian Coast Guard 
patrol intercepted an Indonesian smuggling vessel carrying 14 
Turkish citizens.  By July 2004, Australian Federal Police 
(AFP) agents had traced the human smuggling network 
organizers to Turkey, where smugglers and witnesses were 
engaged in a bidding war over evidence that could build the 
Australian Government's case against the network.  A 
confidential AFP intel report (septel) details the 
 
SIPDIS 
investigation, highlights GOT efforts to cooperate on 
international smuggling and trafficking, and points to 
Canada, Germany, New Zealand and South Korea as additional 
target destinations for the smuggling network.  Post will 
submit an unclassified list of suspected smugglers and 
accomplices through Visas Viper channel. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (C) On November 4, 2003, an Australian Coast Guard patrol 
intercepted an Indonesian vessel carrying 14 Turkish 
citizens.  Passengers aboard reportedly paid smugglers $7500 
each for illegal transit to Australia.  AFP agents told 
Emboff they opened an investigation but before they could 
obtain statements against the smugglers, immigration 
authorities had deported the 14 passengers. 
 
¶3. (C) According to the AFP agent in charge of the 
investigation, Shawn Selles, organizers of the smuggling 
network had delivered more than 250 Turkish and Kurdish 
illegal immigrants since 1993.  The principal member of the 
network, Mehmet Seriban, was arrested in Australia in March 
¶2004.  Selles said he believes the remaining members of the 
network are in hiding near Gaziantep and Adiyaman, Turkey. 
 
¶4. (C) With GOT permission, Selles and AFP agent Glenn 
Morrison arrived in Turkey in July 2004 to take the 
passengers' (now considered witnesses) statements and gather 
evidence for a request to extradite members of the smuggling 
network.  Working though the Australian Embassy in Ankara and 
the Turkish MFA, Selles and Morrison arranged transportation, 
lodging, and per diem for the 14 witnesses to travel to 
Ankara from their homes also in Gaziantep and Adiyaman, 
Turkey to give their testimonies. 
 
¶5. (C) Selles commented that, though the Turkish bureaucracy 
introduced unnecessary hurdles to the process, in the end, 
the GOT facilitated the interviews.  Selles also commented 
that, at times, officials at the Turkish MFA and the Turkish 
MOI seemed to work directly against one another.  "We were 
tenacious about gaining permissions from each of the agencies 
we were instructed to visit, that's why it took us 8 months 
to get to the point where we could finally interview the 
witnesses," he said. "There was a lot of confusion in the 
process." 
 
¶6. (C) When the witnesses met Selles in Ankara in July 2004, 
they recanted on their promises to provide evidence against 
the smugglers, telling Selles they would only share their 
testimony and documentary evidence in exchange for $10k USD 
each.  The smugglers, they claimed, offered $30k and a new 
Mercedes Benz each to keep silent, but the witnesses offered 
to settle with Selles for $10k each.  "They were afraid the 
smugglers wouldn't honor their pledge," he commented.  When 
Selles explained he was legally prohibited from what he 
characterized as "bribing witnesses for testimony," the 
witnesses threatened to "lose" the documentary evidence. 
 
¶7. (C) According to Selles, Turkish National Police (TNP) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                        later interviewed the 
witnesses and obtained the written testimonies, which he 
notes are inadmissible in Australian courts.  "The TNP tried 
to help us, but for our courts to recognize the evidence, we 
need to be in control of the interview," he said.  Selles 
refused to pay the witnesses and returned to Australia 
empty-handed.  POSTSCRIPT: Through their Ankara-based 
attorneys Sevda Ugur and Mustafa Agaoglu, the witnesses are 
now claiming pain, suffering, and the Australian Government's 
refusal to compensate them for their testimony as the basis 
for a lawsuit they have filed against Selles and the 
Australian Government. 
EDELMAN