Bali bombing suspects formally charged after ‘flawed’ two-day arraignment in Guantanamo Bay
- The three men – an Indonesian and two Malaysians – appeared on Tuesday in a secure courthouse encircled by razor wire on the US base in Cuba
- Defence lawyers complained about biased and unskilled interpreters, insisting afterwards that arraignment was so flawed it may have to be repeated
The men appeared on Tuesday in a secure courthouse encircled by razor wire on the US base in Cuba amid defence complaints about courtroom interpreters that caused what was supposed to be a brief arraignment before a military judge into a two-day affair.
It was a rocky start to a case already expected to be complex because of the prolonged detention without charges for the three – an Indonesian and two Malaysians – and the brutal treatment they endured in CIA custody.
Encep Nurjaman, the Indonesian militant leader also known as Riduan Isamuddin and Hambali, and the two Malaysians face trial by military commission, which combines elements of civilian and military law, on charges that include murder, terrorism and conspiracy. They have not yet entered pleas.
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“Frankly after this two day arraignment, I didn’t see any evidence that he would get a fair trial,” said Christine Funk, the lawyer for Mohammed Farik bin Amin, one of the Malaysian defendants.
The defence complained that a Malaysian interpreter’s language skills were so poor that at least one defendant could not understand what was being said in court; that another Malay interpreter was improperly working for the prosecution because he previously assisted the prisoners when they appeared before a prisoner review board at Guantanamo; and that an Indonesian interpreter had been overheard disparaging the men as terrorists who should be killed.
The judge, a Navy commander, allowed the proceeding to go on despite repeated objections. Defence lawyer Brian Bouffard, who represents Malaysian defendant Mohammed Nazir bin Lep, said the arraignment was so flawed it should be done again.
“We have to have a new one because you have to do one and this one wasn’t done right,” Bouffard said.
Nurjaman was a leader of Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian militant group with ties to al-Qaeda. The government says he recruited Lep and Amin, among others, for jihadist operations, and that the two Malaysians helped transfer money for their plots.
Among the plots that al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah carried out were the October 2002 suicide bombings of Paddy’s Pub and the Sari Club in Bali, Indonesia, and the August 2003 suicide bombing of the J.W. Marriott in Jakarta, Indonesia. The attacks together killed 213 people, including seven Americans and 11 Hong Kong residents. The Bali bombing killed 88 Australians.
It is unclear why it has taken so long to charge them before the commission. Prosecutors filed charges against the men in June 2017, but the Pentagon legal official who oversees Guantanamo cases rejected the charges for reasons that have not been publicly disclosed.
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Lawyers for Nurjaman and the two Malaysians are expected to argue that the abuse they experienced has tainted any evidence against them, an argument is also a key aspect of other war crimes cases at Guantanamo.
Former President Barack Obama, who ordered the detention centre to close at the start of his administration, had sought to move some commission cases to federal court in the US but reversed course amid political opposition and Congress ultimately blocked efforts to close the prison.
