For two Malaysians, 20-year Guantanamo ordeal near an end

 

Nazir Lep (left) and Farik Amin have been detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for their alleged role in bomb attacks in Bali and Jakarta more than 20 years ago.

PETALING JAYA: A 20-year ordeal of solitary confinement without trial in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may be at an end next week for two Malaysian terror suspects, Nazir Lep and Farik Amin.

It is understood that Farik, 48, and Nazir, 46, will be entering a guilty plea for their role in bomb attacks in Bali and Jakarta in 2003.

Nazir’s lawyer, Brian Bouffard, said the dates for their hearing from Jan 15 to Feb 2 have been confirmed by the US military court in Guantanamo Bay.

“Mr Nazir will be pleading guilty to and accepting responsibility for his role in these offences. I expect his plea and sentencing will both occur on schedule this month,” Bouffard told FMT.

Brian Bouffard.

However, Bouffard declined to say what the possible sentences are, saying he would leave it to the court to decide.

However, an anti-terrorism expert, Ahmad El-Muhammady, said there is a possibility that Farik and Nazir will be repatriated to Malaysia after the sentencing.

He said closure to their cases is important as two decades of uncertainty and incarceration has already been quite a punishment for them.

“It is also against human rights principles. Thus, bringing them to a court of law is vital to bring closure to their cases,” said Ahmad, an associate fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism at the Hague.

Ahmad El-Muhammady.

Ahmad, who works closely with Bukit Aman and the home ministry, said it has been suggested that the duo undergo two more years of detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act upon their return.

He said the Malaysian government is in touch with the US authorities to try and repatriate them to serve the rest of their sentences and rehabilitation here.

“Both of them have not only been under solitary confinement since their arrest in 2003, they have also been subjected to so much torture, which the US authorities have admitted.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to release them back into society without proper assessments. They first need to undergo psychological, ideological and security assessments. They also need extensive counselling to help them assimilate into a society they won’t be able to recognise,” he told FMT.

Ahmad, who is also involved in an ongoing project to develop Malaysia’s National Action Plan for Countering and Preventing Violent Extremism, said that Malaysia’s deradicalisation of terror suspects has a fairly high success rate.

Bouffard confirmed that Nazir and  Farik’s cases have been separated from that of Indonesian Encep Nurjaman, more commonly known as Hambali, who will go for trial.

The two Malaysians and Hambali, said to be the mastermind of the attacks, have been detained since their arrest in Thailand in 2003.

They were first charged in 2018 for nine offences linked to the 2002 bombings of nightclubs in Bali, which killed 202 people, and 11 deaths in the 2003 Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta. - FMT