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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