2 Malaysians in Guantanamo jailed 23 years for role in Bali bombings

Nazir Lep (left) and Farik Amin apologised in court to family members of some of the 202 Bali bombing victims.

PETALING JAYA: The two Malaysians who pleaded guilty to their role in the 2002 Bali bombings have been sentenced by the Guantanamo military court to 23 years imprisonment.

The jail term for Farik Amin and Nazir Lep, who had been in solitary confinement for more than 20 years since their arrest in Thailand by the US authorities, will run from the day they pleaded guilty on Jan 16.

The sentence phase of the trial lasted three days, and the five-member jury took two hours to deliberate before recommending the punishment.

According to an ABC report, Farik, 48, and Nazir, 47, will serve only five years as per a clause in a pre-trial agreement that remained secret until the end of the proceedings.

Yesterday, the duo apologised to the court in the presence of 11 of the family members of the 202 victims, assuring them they have regretted their actions and have changed after the long solitary confinement.

They were first charged in 2021 together with Indonesian Encep Nurjaman, known as Hambali, but agreed to a pre-trial agreement last December which requires them to plead guilty and face jail sentences of between 20 and 25 years.

The deal also agreed to repatriate them to a third country after their sentencing but it did not specify the nation or when this would be done.

Evidence given by the men is likely to be used when Hambali goes on trial in the same court at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in March next year.

Earlier, in the trial which began on Jan 15, the prosecution revealed that Hambali was the operational mastermind of the bombings with Farik and Nazir acting as “key lieutenants” who provided support, including acting as money couriers, after travelling to Afghanistan.

According to the report, lead prosecutor Colonel George Kraehe said during the hearing that in the 1990s when Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden declared war on America and Western civilisation, the accused had heeded the call by Osama.

He said that in 2000, Farik and Nasir travelled to Afghanistan where they knowingly and voluntarily took part in the bombings.

“The accused want your mercy. But in considering the accused’s request for mercy, ask yourselves: where was their mercy for the victims? There was none.

“They should be shown exactly the same mercy they showed the dead, the injured, and those left behind: none at all,” he said.

In an email response to FMT, Nazir’s counsel, Brian Bouffard, said he was proud of his client and the honest and forthright way he acknowledged his part of the responsibility for the bombings.

“He has done everything he can to honour the grief and pain of the victims and to demonstrate his deeply felt remorse for ever becoming involved. He is a man of peace and has been one for many years now,” Bouffard said.