Three Bali nightclub bombing suspects who have been held in Guantanamo for 18 years will get first day in court today as they are arraigned on charges of murder and terrorism.
Indonesian prisoner Encep Nurjaman, known as Hambali, and two Malaysians, Nazir bin Lep and Mohammed Farik bin Amin, will go before a military commission in Cuba on Monday.
Nurjaman was a leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant group with ties to al-Qaida, reportedly responsible for the 2002 and 2003 attacks in Southeast Asia.
Three Bali nightclub bombing suspects who have been held in Guantanamo for 18 years will get first day in court today as they are arraigned on charges of murder and terrorism
Indonesian prisoner Encep Nurjaman, known as Hambali, a leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant group with ties to al-Qaida, will go before a military commission
The U.S. government says he recruited militants, including bin Lep and Farik bin Amin, for jihadist operations.
Among the plots that al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah carried out were the October 2002 suicide bombings of Paddy's Pub and the Sari Club in Bali, Indonesia.
They are also charged in connection with the August 2003 suicide bombing of the J.W. Marriott in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The attacks together killed 213 people, including seven Americans, and injured 109 people. Dozens of victims were foreign tourists, mostly Australians.
Two Malaysians, Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Nazir bin Lep served as intermediaries in the transfer of money used to fund the group's operations
Prosecutors allege bin Lep and Farik bin Amin served as intermediaries in the transfer of money used to fund the group's operations.
It is the first step in what could be a long legal journey for a case that involves evidence tainted by CIA torture.
This is the same issue that is largely responsible for causing other war crimes cases to languish for years at Guantanamo.
The hearing also comes as the Biden administration says it intends to close the detention center.
The U.S. still holds 39 of the 779 men seized in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks and invasion of Afghanistan.
The three men charged in connection with the bombings were held in secret CIA confinement for three years, followed by 15 more at the isolated US base in Cuba.
Camp Justice, where the military commission proceedings are held for detainees charged with war crimes
The decision to charge them was made by a Pentagon legal official at the end of the Trump administration.
This further complicates the effort to close the detention center, said Brian Bouffard, a lawyer for Mohammed Nazir bin Lep, and makes it more difficult for the new administration to add any to the list of those who could potentially be transferred out of Guantanamo or even sent home.
'It will even be harder after an arraignment,' Bouffard said, but whether the arraignment would actually take place is not certain.
Lawyers have sought to put the case on hold for a number of reasons, including what they have said is insufficient access to interpreters and other resources to mount a defense. The accused were still expected to show up for the hearing.
The decision to charge them was made by a Pentagon legal official at the end of the Trump administration, and proceedings will be held at Camp Justice
The Navy judge presiding over the case in the commission, a hybrid of military and civilian law, is expected to consider that question before the charges can be formally presented in a secure courtroom surrounded by coils of razor wire on the base.
All three were captured in Thailand in 2003 and transferred to CIA 'black sites,' where they were brutalized and subjected to torture, according to a Senate Intelligence Committee report released in 2014.
In 2006, they were moved to Guantanamo, and it remains unclear why it's taken so long to charge them before the military commission.
Military prosecutors filed charges against the men in June 2017, but the Pentagon legal official who oversees Guantanamo cases rejected the charges for reasons that haven't been publicly disclosed.
The case has many elements that make it complex, including whether statements the men made to authorities can hold up in court because of the abuse they experienced in CIA custody.
Military prosecutors filed charges against the men in June 2017, but the Pentagon legal official who oversees Guantanamo cases rejected the charges (Guantanamo Bay, pictured)
A high-ranking member of the Taliban who was released from Guantanamo Bay is Khairullah Khairkhwa
There is also the fact that people have already been convicted, and in some cases executed, in Indonesia for the attack, and the long time it has taken to even bring charges.
Some of these same issues have come up in the case against five Guantanamo prisoners charged for planning and aiding the September 11 attacks.
They were arraigned in May 2012 and remain in the pretrial phase, with no trial date yet scheduled.
Bin Amin's lawyer, Christine Funk, predicted a lengthy period of defense investigation that will require extensive travel, once the pandemic is over, to interview witnesses and look for evidence.
Still, she said, her client is 'anxious and eager to litigate this case and go home.'
More than 200 former Guantanamo Bay inmates who were released have returned to terrorism - with 151 still at large, according to newly declassified documents.
Ruhani revealed to Al Jazeera that he was incarcerated for seven years at the Cuban-based military lockup which was established nearly two decades ago to cage the world's most dangerous terrorists
The declassified Office of National Intelligence report, which is dated December 18, 2020, highlights that 229 former Guantanamo prisoners have reengaged in acts of terrorism and killing Americans since their release.
Among the reengaged former Guantanamo inmates is Abdullah Gulam Rasoul, who became the Taliban’s operations commander in southern Afghanistan after his release in 2007.
The blame for a rise in the number of roadside attacks against American troops in Afghanistan has been placed on him.
Gholam Ruhani is another figure who has returned to terrorism since his release.
The fanatic was among a group of gun-toting fighters who staged a celebratory press conference just hours after President Ashraf Ghani fled his country amid chaotic scenes.
