A guard tower at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. – AFP photo
KUALA LUMPUR (Jan. 17): Two Malaysian terror suspects pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiring in the 2002 Bali bombing after being incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp in Cuba since 2006.
The New York Times reported that Mohammed Farik Amin, 48, and Mohammed Nazir Lep, 47, were charged in 2021, 18 years after they were caught in Thailand. The sentencing is set for next week.
Both defendants were held for years in the US Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) secret overseas prison network. In 2006, they were subsequently relocated to Guantanamo Bay to face trial at the special national-security court that President George W. Bush set up after the Sept 11 attacks.
They have been charged alongside Indonesian terror suspect Encep Nurjaman, also known as Hambali.
However, last October, New York Times reported Mohammed Farik and Mohammed Nazir had reached agreements with prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay to charges of being accessories to the terrorists attacks in Bali, and hence were separated from Hambali’s case.
Hambali now faces charges of murder, terrorism and conspiracy in the 2002 and 2003 incidents where the maximum punishment is life in prison.
In pleading guilty, Mohammed Farik and Mohammed Nazir agreed to testify against Hambali, the former leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah movement, according to the report.
The duo were initially charged in 2018 with nine offences linked to the 2002 bombings of Bali nightclubs that killed 202 people, and the 2003 bombing at the Jakarta Marriott hotel which claimed 11 lives. – Bernama