Govt working on bringing home two Malaysian Bali bombing suspects detained in Cuba
Published on: Monday, September 25, 2023
By: FMT
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Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (left) at a meeting with Tina Kaidanow, the US special representative for Guantanamo affairs. (X pic)
PETALING JAYA: Putrajaya is accelerating efforts to bring home the two Malaysians detained by the US as terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said he discussed the matter in a meeting with Tina Kaidanow, the US special representative for Guantanamo affairs, during his trip to New York recently.
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Saifuddin said it was the second time he had met Kaidanow to discuss the matter after visiting the two Malaysians held in Guantanamo Bay, which is often referred to as “Gitmo”.
“I personally met the two Malaysians who were there. Their stories really touched me. This is about life, repentance and the opportunity for them to become better people.
“(God-willing), we will work on expediting their return to Malaysia,” he wrote in an X posting.
Saifuddin was referring to Nazir Lep and Farik Amin, who were among seven people arrested for their alleged involvement in the twin bombings that killed 202 people in Bali in October 2002 and a bombing at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta in August 2003.
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They were nabbed in Thailand the same year and put under solitary confinement in secret CIA-operated black sites before being moved to Guantanamo Bay in 2006.
It was reported that they were first charged in August 2021. The trial, however, could not proceed because the US government could not provide qualified Malay translators.
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Brian Bouffard, Nazir’s lead counsel, previously told FMT that two weeks had been set aside for the hearing from April 24, after the dates were postponed for 20 months following objections about the quality of Malay translators.
On April 25, lead prosecutor George Kraehe proposed a March 2025 trial date for the two Malaysians and another Indonesian accused of conspiring in the 2002 bombings.
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