KUALA LUMPUR – Two Malaysian detainees at Guantanamo Bay have confessed to conspiring to bomb nightclubs in Bali, Indonesia, which claimed more than 200 lives in October 2002.
The guilty plea marks the first step in proceedings that began when the two accused, Mohammed Farik Amin, 48, and Mohammed Nazir Lep, 47, were charged in 2021, some 18 years after being captured in Thailand.
Sentencing is scheduled for next week.
The confession is also seen as a success for the military prosecutor, who sought an agreement to resolve the long-standing case against former CIA detainees.
Both accused were held for years in the CIA’s secret overseas prison network.
They were transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006 for trial in a special court for national security cases established by President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks.
While in the custody of the agency, according to their lawyers, both were tortured, along with their leader, Encep Nurjaman, an Indonesian detainee known as Hambali.
In their confession, Farik and Nazir agreed to provide testimony against Hambali, the former leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah movement, an ally of al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia.
The charges characterised them as lieutenants or soldiers recruited by Hambali to participate in suicide bombings in the 9/11 attacks as well.
Depending on the information they provide, the prosecution may be exempted from the need to use statements made by Hambali after he was tortured by the CIA.
The question of whether the confessions made by detainees after years of CIA detention are tainted by torture hinders efforts to begin the September 11 attacks and the USS Cole bombing over a decade ago.
Both detainees sat quietly in court, listening to the proceedings that were translated into Bahasa Malaysia. Their lawyers made the guilty plea on their behalf.
Not included in the appeal is the bombing incident at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in August 2003, which claimed 11 lives.
The prosecution also dropped charges of terrorism, attacking civilians and public objects, and attempted murder as per the plea agreement. – January 17, 2024
