TWO Malaysian terror suspects pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring in the 2002 Bali bombing after being incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay detention camp (Gitmo) in Cuba since 2006.

The New York Times reported Mohammed Farik Amin, 48, and Mohammed Nazir Lep, 47, were charged in 2021, 18 years after they were nabbed in Thailand. Sentencing was set for next week.

Both defendants were held for years in the United States Central Intelligence Agency’s secret overseas prison network. In 2006, they were subsequently relocated to Gitmo to face trial at the special national security court ex-president George W. Bush set up after the September 11 attacks.

They were charged alongside Indonesian terror suspect Encep Nurjaman, also known as Hambali.

But in October, New York Times reported Farik and Nazir had reached agreements with Gitmo prosecutors to charges of being accessories to the terrorist attacks in Bali, and hence were separated from Hambali’s case.

Hambali faces charges of murder, terrorism and conspiracy in the 2002 and 2003 incidents, where the maximum punishment is life in prison.

The report said in their plea, Farik and Nazir agreed to testify against Hambali, the former leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah movement.

The duo were initially charged in 2018 with nine offences linked to the 2002 bombings of Bali nightclubs that killed 202 people, and the 2003 bombing at the Jakarta Marriott hotel that claimed 11 lives. – Bernama, January 17, 2024.