VZCZCXRO6965
RR RUEHDE
DE RUEHMS #0150/01 0371202
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 061202Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY MUSCAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5809
INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MUSCAT 000150 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR ECA/A/E/NEA/SA (JSEDLINS); ECA/P (DIVES) 
STATE ALSO FOR NEA/PI, NEA/ARPI, NEA/PPD (CWHITTLESEY) 
ABU DHABI FOR MEPI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KMPI KJUS OEXC SCUL MU
SUBJECT: JUSTICE MINISTER WELCOMES ABA LEGAL TRAINING 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. In a January 30 meeting with a visiting delegation from 
the American Bar Association (ABA), the Minister of Justice 
provided enthusiastic feedback re a proposed MEPI-funded 
training program.  He recounted the Ministry's plans to 
develop a judicial training institute, and solicited Embassy 
and ABA assistance in finding scholarships and advanced legal 
degree programs in the U.S. for future Omani judges.  The 
Minister welcomed ABA's wish to place a long-term adviser in 
Muscat, but asked for a written proposal before making any 
further commitments.  End summary. 
 
--------------- 
A Welcome Visit 
--------------- 
 
¶2. On January 30, Minister of Justice Shaykh Muhammad bin 
Abdallah al-Hinai received the American Bar Association's 
(ABA) visiting Middle East Program Director Angela Conway and 
legal specialist Kent Mortimore to discuss ABA's proposed 
program of MEPI-funded legal training and assistance in Oman. 
 Conway and Mortimore were accompanied by the DCM, Pol/Econ 
Chief and Pol FSN (interpreter); the Minister was joined by 
MOJ's Director of Training Mukhtar bin Khamis al-Hinai. 
 
¶3. After the DCM's introductions and an exchange of 
expressions of satisfaction over the Embassy-provided 
training for the MOJ, Angela Conway reviewed the ABA's 
extensive qualifications and ongoing work in the Middle East, 
and offered a brief overview of the types of training it 
might be able to offer to the MOJ and, through the Ministry, 
to Oman's court system.  The Minister offered strong praise 
for the English language training currently being offered by 
a USG-funded English Language Fellow.  He also noted that 
Oman's legal system is in large measure a mix of Latin, 
British and American legal traditions, suiting it well to 
ABA's strengths. 
 
---------------------- 
Focus on Future Judges 
---------------------- 
 
¶4. The Minister described at length the MOJ's plans to 
develop its own Judicial Training Institute (JTI), with 
construction set to begin within 12-18 months.  The JTI will 
feature a 2-year program for law graduates and court officers 
being groomed as future judges; it will not have a permanent 
faculty, but rather use as instructors both practicing 
professionals and visiting scholars.  Students who fail to 
pass the course in two years can take an optional third year; 
the unsuccessful ones will leave the judicial track and enter 
into other positions within the ministry.  Conway noted that 
ABA is already working with similar judicial training centers 
in Bahrain, Morocco, and Algeria and would be pleased to help 
establish Oman's.  The Minister was keen to learn how other 
countries created and run their schools, and to hear ideas on 
curriculum, organization, and study plans.  He also 
encouraged ABA to consider providing special training in 
legal English as part of the institute's curriculum.  The 
Minister was clear, however, that there was no reason to 
delay whatever help ABA could provide the MOJ while waiting 
for the JTI to germinate. 
 
¶5. As a further part of the MOJ's professional development 
strategic plan, MOJ would like to send a certain number of 
select law school graduates to U.S. and Western law schools 
for advanced degrees (masters, J.D. and Ph.D.).  These 
overseas scholarship programs are written, he said, into the 
Sultanate's 7th Five-Year Development Plan.  He solicited ABA 
and the Embassy's help in providing a study of the top U.S. 
law school programs, their respective costs, and how the 
enrollment process would work, noting that the number of 
students that the Omani government could fund annually would 
be determined by each program's expense.  He also looked to 
the Embassy and ABA to fund 2-3 scholarships for these future 
judges each year, repeating the point several times during 
the meeting.  (The Embassy will consider nominating an MOJ 
employee for the Fulbright Foreign Student Program.) 
 
------------------------------------------ 
ABA Resident Adviser - Looking for Details 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶6. Kent Mortimore described his professional experience as 
lawyer, prosecutor, and courtroom efficiency trainer.  The 
Minister was duly impressed, particularly by Mortimore's 
 
MUSCAT 00000150  002 OF 002 
 
 
background in helping to computerize courtrooms.  He said the 
Omani government's e-government drive had not yet extended to 
Omani courts, but that was MOJ's ambition and a great need. 
Using modern technology, he noted, would improve 
information-sharing between the courts and law enforcement, 
and tidy up legal procedures.  Mortimore's background, 
therefore, made him a perfect candidate for helping the 
ministry move forward in its courtroom automation plans. 
 
¶7. For its part, ABA was keen to win the MOJ's agreement to 
provide official sponsorship of Mr. Mortimore that would 
allow him to remain in Oman for 8-9 months to implement and 
supervise ABA's legal training.  After exchanges on how this 
might be accomplished (the Minister noted that an employment 
contract was not an option as Mortimore was not being paid by 
the MOJ), the Minister promised his staff would examine the 
issue more thoroughly but that, in the meantime, MOJ would 
like to see ABA's written proposal for what training program 
Mortimore would propose to undertake.  ABA agreed to provide 
such a document in short order, and looked forward to MOJ's 
feedback on reaching a mutually agreed action plan.  (The 
Embassy, meanwhile, is following up with Mukhtar al-Hinai on 
the visa and sponsorship issue.) 
BALTIMORE