US repatriates Malaysians who aided alleged mastermind of Bali bombings

The US military said on Dec 18 that it had repatriated two Malaysian men from its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who admitted to committing war crimes for an affiliate of Al-Qaeda that carried out deadly bombings in Bali, Indonesia, in 2002.

The rare transfer, a day after the Pentagon released another prisoner to the custody of Kenya, reduced the detainee population to 27 men.

The freed prisoners, Mohammed Nazir Lep, 47, and Mohammed Farik Amin, 49, had been held by the US since 2003. They were returned to the custody of the Malaysian government, and supervision of its deradicalisation programme, through a diplomatic arrangement that was reached as part of their guilty pleas in January.

Before they left, the men gave sworn testimony that prosecutors hope will be useful in the eventual trial of Encep Nurjaman, the Indonesian prisoner known as Hambali.

Hambali is accused of being the mastermind of the Bali bombings and other terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2003 as a leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah movement. The men admitted to being accessories to the terror attack, after the fact, by helping Hambali elude capture.