When a jury of military officers is assembled this week at Guantanamo 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 2024.
The sentencing proceedings for Mohammed Farik Amin, 48, and Mohammed Nazir Lep, 47, are part of a US government strategy of trying to resolve Guantanamo's national security cases through plea negotiations.
The men spent years in secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prisons following their capture in 2003. In reaching the agreement, prosecutors averted lengthy litigation over torture that has stymied two capital cases, one for the Sept 11 attacks and the other for the bombing of the USS Cole.
The two men were captured along with a one-time member of the Al-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, potentially for use in the trial of Hambali, which prosecutors want to hold in 2025.
The testimony is secret for now.
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