Malaysian terror detainee in Cuba severs case from co-defendants'
The move reportedly suggests a plea deal could be in the works.
GUANTANAMO BAY: A Malaysian detainee at a US military detention centre in Cuba accused of roles in deadly terrorist attacks in Indonesia two decades ago has cut off his case from that of his two co-defendants, a move that reportedly suggested a plea deal could be in the works.
Mohammed Farik Bin Amin is no longer being tried with two other suspects - an Indonesian and a fellow Malaysian - in the case, according to a recent court filing posted on the US military commission’s website.
The trio - Farik, Indonesian Encep Nurjaman better known as Hambali, and Malaysian Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep - are accused 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 took 11 lives. They are now being held at the infamous detention centre in Guantánamo Bay.
The court filing did not state whether the parties had reached a plea deal, and if so, whether Farik had agreed to testify against his co-defendants, what sentence he would receive and where he would serve it.
Farik’s defence lawyer Christine Funk and prosecutor Col. George Kraehe declined to comment, according to the New York Times.
Late in the Obama administration, the government almost reached an agreement with Farik in which he would have been returned home to Malaysia to serve out most of his sentence, reported the Times further.
“But the deal collapsed amid concerns that he would not remain imprisoned for the full term, in part because Malaysia might not recognise the tribunals system as legitimate,” said the Times report.
“A conviction of Mr. Bin Amin through a guilty plea would fit a strategy at the military commissions system of trying to use that approach to resolve charges against detainees formerly held at secret C.I.A. prisons known as black sites.
“Such cases are complicated by the fact that the agency tortured the prisoners before transferring them to military custody, and by the heavy presence of classified information.”