2002 Bali bombings: Malaysians held in Guantanamo Bay plead guilty, to give evidence against 'mastermind'

In a plea agreement that is anticipated to result in their return to Malaysia, two Malaysian citizens detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba have admitted guilt to their roles in the 2002 Bali bombing in Indonesia. In connection with the bombing in Bali that killed 202 people, including seven Americans, in October 2002, Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep entered guilty pleas on Tuesday at the military court in Guantanamo Bay to charges of murder, conspiracy, accessory after the fact, and purposeful causing serious bodily injury and destruction of property. In response to accusations pertaining to the 2003 bombing of the Jakarta JW Marriott Hotel, the two entered a not guilty plea. Along with the suspected mastermind, Encep Nurjaman, an Indonesian national also known as Hambali, the two men were detained in Thailand in 2003. In 2006, they were sent to Guantanamo Bay. All three individuals were detained and subjected to torture at CIA black sites or covert prisons between 2003 and 2006 in order to coerce confessions regarding their involvement in the Bali bombing, according to a 2014 US Senate Intelligence Committee investigation. The attack was attributed to the Indonesian hardline Islamist organization Jemaah Islamiah, and three individuals, Imam Samudra, Amrozi, and Ali Ghufron, were put to death in 2008 for planning the terrorist act. For his part in the bombing, a fourth man, Ali Imron, was given a life sentence and is still incarcerated in Jakarta. Arnold, a victim of the Bali bombing who wished to remain anonymous, told This Week in Asia that he was not particularly upset with the plea agreements. When a bomber exploded a suicide vest at the Paddy’s Club next door, the Indonesian national was working as a bartender at the Sari Club in Bali’s Kuta neighborhood. He claimed that because of the loud music playing in his club, at first he mistook the sounds for a stalling car. Arnold continued by saying he couldn’t recall the time of the second explosion. He was rendered unconscious by the terrorists’ one-ton of explosives, which they had concealed in filing cabinets inside a van that was parked outside the Sari Club. He awoke with burns all over him. No one was hurt when a third device went off in the vicinity of the US consulate in Bali’s Renon neighborhood. The plea agreements between Farik and Nazir are said to have been made possible by a visit to the US-run facility in Cuba last year by a group from Malaysia, which also comprised the Police Inspector General Razarudin Husain and Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail. As part of a tour arranged by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Saifuddin claimed to have met US Special Representative for Guantanamo Affairs Tina Kaidanow in September while in New York. Approximately 780 detainees were originally housed at Guantanamo Bay; today, only 30 are there, including Hambali, Farik, and Nazir. Of the men detained there, just eleven have ever faced criminal charges. The sentencing of Farik and Nazir is scheduled for next week.