Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Terrorism defendants reach plea agreements

- CAROL ROSENBERG

WASHINGTON — Two Malaysian men have reached agreements with military prosecutor­s at Guantánamo Bay to plead guilty to war crimes charges for being accessorie­s to deadly terrorist attacks in Indonesia two decades ago.

Both men and the lead defendant in the case, Encep Nurjaman, were held for years in the CIA’s secret prison network and transferre­d to Guantánamo in 2006. They were charged in August 2021, 18 years after they were captured.

Under the deals, the cases of Mohammed Farik Bin Amin, 48, and Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, 46, have been separated from Nurjaman’s case.

The two men are accused of having served as money couriers and providing other support to Nurjaman, an Indonesian man who is known as Hambali, a former leader of the Southeast Asian extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah.

Now he will face trial alone on charges of murder, terrorism and conspiracy in the 2002 bombings of nightclubs in Bali that killed 202 people and the 2003 Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta that killed 11 people.

The maximum punishment in the case is life in prison.

The military disclosed the existence of the deal this week with the release of a court filing by prosecutor­s and lawyers for Bin Amin, which scheduled a hearing starting Jan. 15 for the entry of a plea, assembling a military panel and sentencing. The terms were under seal, including any limits on his prison sentence, where he would serve it and whether his testimony was sought against Nurjaman.

Less is known about when Bin Lep will be sentenced. On Thursday, his lawyer, Brian Bouffard, said only that “Mr. Bin Lep will fully cooperate with the U.S. government.” Christine Funk, the lawyer for Bin Amin, declined to discuss the deal.

But people with knowledge of the agreements said the men were seeking to be sent to a rehabilita­tion program for Muslim extremists in Malaysia.

None of those with knowledge of the talks were authorized to discuss the arrangemen­ts because of the delicacy of the diplomacy involved. Malaysian diplomats visited Guantánamo Bay last month, according to U.S. officials and news reports from Southeast Asia.

The defendants are scheduled to appear at the war court next week for preliminar­y hearings before the new judge in the case, Lt. Col. Wesley Braun. But no pleas will be taken.

Nurjaman has a separate hearing next week. His lawyer, James R. Hodes, said he was uncertain of whether or how prosecutor­s might try to use the pleas of the two Malaysians at his client’s trial.

“These guys should never have been brought to Guantánamo in the first place,” he said. “If they’re admitting to their own guilt and say nothing that implicates Mr. Nurjaman, that’s fine.”

But, he said, any effort by prosecutor­s to record testimony from the two men and then repatriate them beyond the reach of the court might prejudice or harm his client. Live confrontat­ion is “what our constituti­on guarantees people accused of crimes,” he said.

Col. George Kraehe, the case prosecutor, did not respond to a request for comment on any aspect of the deal or future trial.

Both Malaysian men reached the agreements with Jeffrey D. Wood, a lawyer and colonel with the Arkansas National Guard who was appointed during the Trump administra­tion as overseer of the war court. He left that job this month and was replaced by a retired Army general, Susan K. Escallier.

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