Malaysians in Guantanamo Bay set to give evidence against Hambali after pleading guilty to role in Bali bombing
Two Malaysian nationals incarcerated at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba have pleaded guilty to their roles in the 2002 Bali bombing in Indonesia, as part of a plea deal that is expected to see them returned to their home country.
Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep on Tuesday appeared at the military court in Guantanamo Bay and pleaded guilty to murder, conspiracy, accessory after the fact, intentionally causing serious bodily injury and destruction of property in relation to the bombing in Bali, which killed 202 people, including seven Americans, in October 2002.
The pair pleaded not guilty to charges related to the 2003 bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.
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The two men were arrested in Thailand in 2003 along with Indonesian national Encep Nurjaman, the alleged mastermind also known as Hambali, and moved to Guantanamo Bay in 2006.
According to a 2014 US Senate Intelligence Committee report, all three men were held and tortured at CIA black sites or clandestine prisons from 2003 to 2006 to extract confessions about their roles in the Bali bombing.
The Indonesian hardline Islamist group, Jemaah Islamiah, claimed responsibility for the attack and three men - Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Ali Ghufron - were executed in 2008 for organising the terror plot.
A fourth man, Ali Imron, received a life sentence for his role in the bombing and remains in prison in Jakarta.
Bali bombing survivor Arnold, who did not want to use his full name, told This Week in Asia that he did not have any strong feelings about the plea deals.
The Indonesian national had been working as a bartender at the Sari Club in Bali's Kuta district, when a bomber detonated a suicide vest at the Paddy's Club next door. He said he initially thought the noise was coming from a car that was stalling, as the loud music playing in his club muffled the sound.
Arnold added he did not remember when the second blast happened. The attackers had packed one tonne of explosives in filing cabinets in a van parked outside the Sari Club, which knocked him unconscious. He woke up covered in burns.
A third bomb went off near the US consulate in Bali's Renon area, but did not result in any casualties.
"I have already forgotten about what happened," Arnold said when asked whether the plea deals would bring some form of closure for victims of the bombing.
Farik and Nazir's plea deals are thought to have been facilitated during a visit to the US-run facility in Cuba last year by a Malaysian delegation that included Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and the Police Inspector General Razarudin Husain.
In September, Saifuddin said he had met Tina Kaidanow, the US Special Representative for Guantanamo Affairs, while in New York as part of a trip led by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
"The plea deals show that the cases of Guantanamo detainees can be resolved when there is political will," said Ian Wilson, a lecturer in politics and security studies at Murdoch University in Australia.
"This should be taken as an opportunity to accelerate the processing of remaining detainees as quickly as possible, and to shut down Guantanamo Bay permanently - something that had been promised by the Obama administration," he told This Week in Asia.
Guantanamo Bay once held some 780 detainees, although only 30 remain, including Hambali, Farik and Nazir. Only 11 men held there had ever been charged with a crime.
Farik and Nazir are expected to be sentenced next week.
A source close to the case, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the men were expected to give evidence against their former co-accused, Hambali, who will now stand trial alone, as part of the plea deals.
The source expected the men to receive "light sentences" and be returned immediately to Malaysia, where they would serve their terms in prison or under house arrest.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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