Two Malaysian held in Guantánamo Bay since 2006 have been returned to Malaysia, after they pleaded guilty to charges related to the deadly 2002 Bali bombings and agreed to testify against the alleged ringleader of that and other attacks.
Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep arrived back in Malaysia, state media reported, where they will undergo a rehabilitation process before being reintegrated into society.
Prosecutors say the pair worked for years with Encep Nurjaman, known as Hambali, an Indonesian leader of al-Qaida affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah. The two men helped Nurjaman escape capture after the 12 October 2002 bombings that killed 202 people at two nightspots in Bali, US officials said.
The US Department of Defense announced in a statement on Wednesday that the men would be repatriated, saying they had pled guilty before a military commission to “multiple offenses, including murder in violation of the law of war, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, conspiracy, and destruction of property in violation of the law of war.”
Malaysia’s inspector general of police, Razarudin Husain, said the men would undergo rehabilitation, according to state news agency Bernama. “Everyone deserves a second chance, and the Royal Malaysia Police will ensure they achieve it,” he said.
He added that both individuals were in a good and healthy condition.
“They are very grateful to return home and finally reunite with their families. However, the Ministry of Home Affairs has instructed them to undergo an assessment process and subsequently enter a comprehensive rehabilitation phase before reintegrating into society,” he said.
The transfers, plus the repatriation of a Kenyan man who’d been held at Guantanamo for 17 years without charge, come as rights groups and others push the Biden administration to end the detention of more than a dozen other men held there without charge, and amid uncertainty over the incoming Trump administration’s plans for Guantanamo.
Bin Amin and Bin Lep entered guilty pleas to conspiracy and other charges in January. Their transfer comes after they provided testimony that prosecutors plan to use in the future against Nurjaman, the alleged mastermind, the Pentagon said in a statement on Wednesday.
Nurjaman is in custody in Guantánamo awaiting resumption of pre-trial hearings in January involving the Bali bombings and other attacks.
The two Malaysian men’s transfers leave 27 detainees in custody at the US naval base in Guantánamo Bay. President George W Bush set up a military tribunal and prison after the 11 September 2001 al-Qaida attacks on the US.
At peak, Guantánamo detained hundreds of men, most Muslim, in the US military’s “war on terror” after the September 11 attacks.
Just two of the men at Guantánamo are serving sentences. The US prosecution of seven others currently facing charges has been slowed by legal obstacles – including those presented by the torture of the men in their first years under CIA custody – and logistical difficulties.
On Tuesday, US authorities repatriated a Kenyan man, Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, after 17 years at Guantánamo without charge.
His release leaves 15 other never-charged men awaiting release. The US is searching for suitable and stable countries willing to take them. Many are from Yemen, a country split by war and dominated by an Iranian-allied militant group.
Amnesty International urged Joe Biden to end the detention of those never-charged men before he leaves office. If not, the rights group said in a statement, “he will continue to bear responsibility for the abhorrent practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial by the US government”.
