Dec. 18 (UPI) — Two men held at Guantanamo Bay for 18 years in connection with the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed more than 200 people were repatriated to Malaysia on Wednesday, U.S. authorities said.
Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep were handed over to the Malaysian government to serve the remainder of the five-year prison sentences they received after pleading guilty in a Military Commission court to multiple breaches of the laws of war including murder, causing bodily harm, conspiracy and destruction of property, the Defense Department said in a news release.
“Pursuant to a pretrial agreement between the United States and the two men, each has cooperated with the U.S. Government and has provided deposition testimony available for use against the alleged mastermind, Encep Nurjaman, of the al-Qaida-affiliated attacks on nightclubs in Bali, Indonesia in 2002, and the attack on the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2003,” the Pentagon said.
The three men were arrested in Thailand in 2003 and handed over to U.S. authorities which only announced they were moving ahead with plans to put them on trial in 2021.
Bin Amin and bin Lep were each sentenced to five years’ confinement in June after pleading guilty with a recommendation both men be repatriated or transferred to a third-party sovereign nation to serve the rest of the approved sentence.
The transfer, which came five weeks after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin notified Congress of his intent to repatriate the pair to Malaysia, is part of ongoing efforts to phase out the detention camp at the U.S. naval station on Cuba’s southern coast used to hold militants, captured battlefield combatants, and terrorism suspects in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Separately, the Pentagon announced Wednesday that Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu had been handed over to the Kenyan government after being held in Guantanamo since 2007 on suspicion of being a facilitator for an al-Qaida group in East Africa.
He was arrested by Kenyan authorities in connection with the 2002 bombing of a Israeli-owned hotel in Mombassa that killed 13 people and injured some 80 others and handed over to U.S. authorities — but was never charged with any criminal offense.
Wednesday’s transfers bring the number of detainees remaining at Guantanamo Bay to 27, according to Pentagon figures, of which 15 are eligible for transfer and three are eligible for a Periodic Review Board.
Seven are going through the military commissions process with two others already convicted and sentenced.
“The United States appreciates the support to ongoing U.S. efforts toward a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” said the Pentagon.