Bali Bombers May Return to Malaysia After Sentencing

The two prisoners have admitted to conspiring with an affiliate of Al Qaeda that carried out a deadly bombing in Indonesia two decades ago.

Share full article

Mohammed Farik Bin Amin, left, and Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep spent years in secret C.I.A. prisons after their capture in 2003.

By Carol Rosenberg

Reporting from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba

Jan. 22, 2024, 4:40 p.m. ET

When a jury of military officers is assembled this week at Guantánamo Bay, it will be asked to choose a sentence in the 20- to 25-year range for two Malaysian prisoners who admitted to conspiring with an affiliate of Al Qaeda that carried out a deadly bombing in Indonesia two decades ago.

But behind the scenes, through a secret agreement that was negotiated with a senior Trump-era official, the men could be returned to Malaysia before the end of the year.

The sentencing proceedings for Mohammed Farik Bin Amin, 48, and Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, 47, are part of a U.S. government strategy of trying to resolve Guantánamo’s national security cases through plea negotiations. The men spent years in secret C.I.A. prisons following their capture in 2003. In reaching the agreement, prosecutors averted lengthy litigation over torture that has stymied two capital cases, the Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole.

The two men were captured along with a onetime member of the Qaeda affiliate, an Indonesian known as Hambali.

Last week they pleaded guilty to conspiring in a pair of suicide bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people on Oct. 12, 2002. As part of the plea agreement, they were questioned by prosecutors on Sunday and Monday, potentially for use in the trial of Mr. Hambali, which prosecutors want to hold next year.

The testimony is secret for now. But in their plea they said they had no firsthand knowledge that Mr. Hambali was responsible for the attack. They said they learned afterward from news reports on the internet that Mr. Hambali was wanted for a string of attacks carried out by the Jemaah Islamiyah movement and that they helped him elude capture.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.