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Medan, Indonesia – Nasir Abbas, a former member of the Indonesian hardline group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) describes fellow recruit Encep Nurjaman as “sometimes Javanese”.
Nurjaman, who is healthier identified by his nom de guerre Hambali in addition to by the alias Riduan Isamuddin, was “well mannered”, “gentle” and “correct”, Abbas advised Al Jazeera, remembering the time the 2 males have been a part of one of the crucial fearsome teams in Southeast Asia.
Hambali and Abbas each skilled in army fight collectively in Afghanistan within the Nineteen Nineties, earlier than becoming a member of JI which was labelled a terrorist organisation by the US authorities after the group claimed a string of assaults throughout Indonesia within the early 2000s, together with the Bali Bombing in 2002, which left greater than 200 folks lifeless.
“He was so eloquent and so intelligent. You couldn’t assist however be left with an excellent impression of him,” stated Abbas, who co-operated with the authorities following his arrest and now works on deradicalisation programmes for the Indonesian authorities.
The US didn’t really feel that approach.
Hambali, who’s now 57, has spent the final 16 years at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and was described by former US President George W Bush as “one of many world’s most deadly terrorists”.
Then US President George W Bush hailed Hambal’s seize and known as him ‘one of many world’s most deadly terrorists’ [File: Rick Wilking/Reuters]Twenty years because the first detainees have been despatched to Guantanamo, Hambali stays one in every of 39 males nonetheless held there.
Of 800 incarcerated within the facility because it was opened, solely 12 have been charged with battle crimes and have stood, or will stand, trial on the facility’s Camp Justice in entrance of a army fee. Hambali, who’s charged with homicide, terrorism and conspiracy, is one in every of them.
“The place of the US Authorities is that the people who’re in Guantanamo typically, but additionally when charged within the army commissions, are a class of what are known as illegal combatants,” stated Michel Paradis, a human rights lawyer, nationwide safety regulation scholar and lecturer at Columbia Regulation College in New York.
“Hambali is a combatant within the battle on terrorism within the authorities’s view and, as such, could be prosecuted for battle crimes.”
In courtroom paperwork seen by Al Jazeera, these battle crimes relate to the 2002 Bali bombings, which focused folks having fun with an evening out within the buzzing Kuta district of the island, and a 2003 assault on the JW Marriott Resort in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, by which 12 folks have been killed. A whole bunch have been injured in each Jakarta and Bali.
Hambali will stand trial with two Malaysians and alleged “accomplices” – Mohammed Nazir bin Lep and Mohammed Farik bin Amin – however some query whether or not they may have the ability to get a good listening to.
“A recurring characteristic of the Struggle on Terror has been the invocation of terrorism as an unprecedented and distinctive act. That is regardless of it being a recurring technique utilized by a wide range of teams, actions and governments all through historical past,” Ian Wilson, a senior lecturer in politics and safety research at Australia’s Murdoch College, advised Al Jazeera.
“This ‘distinctive’ nature has been used to rationalise measures that circumvent or negate present authorized and rights frameworks, together with these inscribed in constitutions similar to rights to due course of and presumption of innocence. This ‘state of exception’ in response to the perceived danger and risk of terrorism has resulted in vital deterioration within the rule of regulation, and main swings in the direction of illiberalism in democratic states.”
Wilson says Guantanamo Bay is an instance of this method – a spot thought of of “distinctive sovereignty” by Washington, but additionally someplace portrayed as outdoors the formal authorized jurisdiction of the US.
Torture
Detainees similar to Hambali, haven’t solely been denied the authorized rights and due course of that will have been afforded them by the structure in a trial on US soil, but additionally the rights within the Geneva Conventions given to these being tried for battle crimes.
Hambali, by his legal professionals, has alleged that he was brutally tortured following his arrest in Thailand in 2003, after which he says he was transferred to a secret detention camp run by the Central Intelligence Company (CIA) and tortured as a part of the company’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation Program (RDI) which is typically known as the “torture programme”.
Encep Nurjamen, often known as Hambali, in an undated photograph offered by the Federal Public Defenders Workplace at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba [File: Federal Public Defender’s Office via AP Photo]The coverage was adopted within the aftermath of the September 11 assaults on the US with then-President Bush agreeing that sure torture methods could possibly be justified in the event that they have been capable of extract intelligence that will forestall different assaults towards the nation from occurring. Underneath worldwide regulation, torture is rarely justified.
In keeping with Hambali’s lawyer, the Indonesian was stripped bare, disadvantaged of meals and sleep and made to face in stress positions – similar to kneeling on the ground together with his fingers above his head – for hours as a part of the programme.
He was additionally allegedly subjected to “walling” – a torture method the place interrogators place a collar round a detainee’s neck and slam their head towards a wall.
Different Guantanamo detainees have described being sexually assaulted and waterboarded whereas in detention.
The Senate Intelligence Committee investigated the CIA’s rendition programme amid persistent allegations of torture at Guantanamo and different so-called CIA black websites world wide.
Launched in 2014, the report discovered that the torture methods used – referred to euphemistically as “enhanced interrogation methods” – weren’t solely inhumane, but additionally ineffective in acquiring intelligence.
Nearly all of detainees, together with Hambali, gave incorrect info to the authorities merely to make the torture cease, the report stated.
“He had offered the false info in an try to cut back the strain on himself…and to offer an account that was in keeping with what [Hambali] assessed the questioners wished to listen to,” the report stated, citing a CIA cable.
‘Worst of each worlds’
Throughout his time with Jemaah Islamiyah, which was affiliated with al-Qaeda, Hambali was most frequently described as a “cash man”, in line with Abbas.
His important position was accumulating and distributing funds from the organisation’s many donors, amongst them al-Qaeda’s former chief, Osama Bin Laden, who is believed to have despatched cash for the Bali Bombing on to Hambali.
Hambali is accused of involvement within the 2003 assaults on the JW Marriott Resort in Jakarta and the Bali Bombings the 12 months earlier than, which collectively killed greater than 200 folks [File: Weda/EPA]Nevertheless, in Abbas’ telling, Hambali agreed with Bin Laden that civilians could possibly be focused in terrorist assaults, one thing that was extraordinarily controversial amongst different JI operatives, lots of whom solely thought of army targets as honest sport.
“We have been skilled in a army setting in Afghanistan with army information and I used to be not comfy with attacking civilian targets,” stated Abbas.
“I wouldn’t permit it. Nobody concerned within the Bali Bombing was courageous sufficient to ask me for something. They knew I’d by no means conform to the killing of civilians. Those that did agree have been misguided and I advised them that.”
Three of the principle perpetrators of the Bali Bombing have been sentenced to demise in Indonesia and executed, whereas a fourth perpetrator, Ali Imron, was given a life sentence after he apologised and expressed regret.
Imron has at all times maintained that Hambali had no prior information of the assault.
Twenty years because the bombings – the worst assault in Southeast Asia – Abbas says he feels that his former comrade needs to be returned to Indonesia to face trial.
It’s a view shared by Indonesian human rights lawyer Ranto Sibarani who says the Indonesian authorities ought to have tried to barter his repatriation.
“Irrespective of how severe the accusations or expenses towards Hambali, he’s nonetheless an Indonesian citizen who deserves safety in line with the regulation,” Sibarani advised Al Jazeera in August.
“That’s a giant query that’s going to loom over the trial,” stated Paradis. “Does the US even have the authority to prosecute him? Terrorism will not be a battle crime.”
In 2009, the US departments of justice and defence described the army commissions as “honest, efficient, and lawful”.
“Army commissions have been utilized by the US to attempt those that have violated the regulation of battle for greater than two centuries,” it stated in a press assertion.
Indonesia prosecuted different suspects for the Bali Bombings, sentencing three to demise. A fourth, Ali Imron (pictured) was given a life sentence after he apologised and expressed regret [File: Widhia/EPA]No date has been set for Hambali’s trial, however many are pessimistic about how the authorized course of will play out as soon as the fee lastly will get underneath approach.
“The army trials are fatally flawed and the authorized course of has been completely compromised by the CIA torture programme,” Quinton Temby, an assistant professor in public coverage at Monash College, Indonesia, advised Al Jazeera.
“It’s the worst of each worlds: the detainees gained’t obtain a good trial and the households of victims gained’t see the perpetrators held to account in open courtroom.”
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