Malaysian detainees in Guantanamo plead guilty to conspiring in 2002 Bali bombing

 

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

PETALING JAYA: Two Malaysian terror suspects pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring in the 2002 bomb attacks in Bali after 20 years of solitary confinement without trial in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Nazir Lep and Farik Amin, alongside Indonesian Encep Nurjaman, said to be the mastermind of the attacks, have been detained since their arrest in Thailand in 2003.

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

In pleading guilty, Nazir and Farik agreed to testify against Encep, who is more commonly known as Hambali.

According to the New York Times, the charges cast the duo as Hambali’s lieutenants or foot soldiers whom he “recruited to take part in never-realised suicide bombings of US targets”.

Their pleas, however, made no mention of any link to the 2003 bombing in Jakarta.

As part of the plea agreement, charges of terrorism, assault on civilians and civilian structures, as well as attempted murder were dropped by the prosecutors.

Judge Wesley A Braun of the Air Force told the defendants that although they may not have personally carried out the bombings, they were admitting to being criminally responsible as members of an unlawful conspiracy.

The defendants agreed, as part of the plea deal, to a narrative describing their relationship to Al Qaeda and the Jemaah Islamiyah movement. They also agreed that Hambali encouraged them to go to Afghanistan for firearms and basic military training with Al Qaeda in 2000.

In late 2001, Hambali chose them to take part in a never-realised suicide attack against the US, called a “martyrdom operation”. As a key component to making them conspirators, they swore an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

In their plea, Nazir and Farik did not say they knew about or took part in the Bali bombing. But they admitted to returning to Southeast Asia by early 2002 and were aware that Hambali was a wanted person both prior to and after the bombing, helping him in evading capture. - FMT