‘Minor victory’ for Malaysian terror suspects in Guantanamo

 

(From left) Hambali, Mohammed Nazir Lep and Mohammed Farik Amin were nabbed in Thailand in 2003 by the US.

PETALING JAYA: The two Malaysians and an Indonesian facing terrorism charges in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have won a “minor victory” when the court accepted their opposition to the earlier Malay and Indonesian interpreters who they claimed were biased and incompetent.

During their arraignment on Aug 30 and 31 last year, Mohammed Nazir Lep and Mohammed Farik Amin, together with Indonesian Encep Nurjaman, more commonly known as Hambali, refused to enter a plea citing bias and incompetence of the interpreters which resulted in inaccurate translations.

Following this, the trio had asked the US military court for a fresh arraignment with new interpreters before they entered their plea.

In the decision last week sighted by FMT, the court ordered the US government to submit an updated interpreter support plan by February for the hearing scheduled from Feb 28 to March 4.

“This plan will identify at least two interpreters for each language and who will be available to support the court during the hearing either from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or remotely from a location in the national capital,” military judge Hayes C Larsen said.

“All interpreters will possess appropriate security clearances and be screened for potentially disqualifying work histories.

“The government will coordinate with the Office of the Military Commission for an analysis of the Malaysian interpretation of last year’s hearing by an independent interpreter before Feb 8, 2022.”

He said the Malaysian interpreter identified by the government for the next hearing was the same interpreter used in the last one, adding that the state had proposed once again to use only one interpreter for each language.

“This is inadequate and, therefore, the government will identify two interpreters per language for future hearings.”

Larsen said the defence had until Feb 8 to file any objection to the interpreters identified by the government in its support plan.

When contacted, Nazir’s lead counsel, Brian Bouffard, said the defence was pleased that the commission may now actually be taking this issue seriously and looking at the situation honestly.

“And that is a minor victory by itself. We continue to believe that a proper arraignment has not occurred in this case and, therefore, all future hearings will be null and void unless this problem is fixed.

“Sooner or later, the US will have to respect the rule of law, and arraign my client correctly and with a recognition of his human dignity and legal rights,” he said in an email response.

Asked the state of Nazir’s mind after being incarcerated under solitary confinement for nearly 19 years, Bouffard said he only gets to meet him in person when in Guantanamo Bay.

“He is grateful that the world has not forgotten him or those held there with him. As always, he wants a fair trial and to come home to his family in Malaysia as soon as possible.

“We are deeply appreciative of any efforts by the Malaysian government to help make this happen,” he said.

All three suspects, who were referred to as “alien unprivileged enemy belligerents” more than a dozen times in the affidavits, face eight charges, including seven related to twin bombings that killed 202 people in Bali in October 2002 – Indonesia’s deadliest terror attack to date – and a bombing at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta in August 2003.

The eight charges are conspiracy, murder, attempted murder, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, terrorism, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, and destruction of property.

All three men were arrested in Thailand in 2003 and sent to secret CIA-operated “black sites” before being moved to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay in 2006. - FMT