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Medan, Indonesia – Nasir Abbas, a former member of Indonesia’s Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) hardline group, describes recruit Encep Nurjaman as a “usually Javanese” recruit.
Nurjaman, better known by his war as Hambali and nicknamed Isamuddin in Riduan, was “nice,” “soft,” and “appropriate,” Abbas told Al Jazeera, recalling the time when the two men were part of one of them. The most terrifying groups in Southeast Asia.
Hambali and Abbas trained together in military fighting in Afghanistan in the 1990s, before the U.S. government declared it a terrorist organization before joining the JI, after the group claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Indonesia in the early 2000s, including the 2002 Bali bombing. , Which left more than 200 people dead.
“He was so eloquent and so clear. You couldn’t stop making a good impression, “said Abbas, who has been cooperating with the authorities since his arrest and is now working on the Indonesian government’s radicalization programs.
The United States did not feel that way.
Hambali, now 57, has spent the last 16 years at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay, and former US President George W Bush has described him as “one of the deadliest terrorists in the world”.
Twenty years have passed since the first detainees were sent to GuantanamoHambali remains one of the 39 men still standing there.
De 800 prisoners since they opened the facility, only 12 have been charged with war crimes and have been tried, or will be tried at the facility’s Justice Camp, before a military commission. Hambali, accused of murder, terrorism and conspiracy, is one of them.
“The attitude of the U.S. government is that people who are at Guantanamo in general, but also when they are charged in military commissions, are a category of so-called illegal fighters,” said Michel Paradis, a human rights lawyer, national security law. Professor and Professor at Columbia Law School in New York.
“Hambali believes the government is a fighter in the fight against terrorism and can therefore be tried for war crimes.”
According to court documents obtained by Al Jazeera, these war crimes are related to the 2002 Bali bombings, which targeted people spending a night in the bustling Kuta district of the island, and the 2003 attack on the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia. which killed 12 people. Hundreds were injured in Jakarta and Bali.
Hambali will be tried with two Malaysians and alleged “accomplices” – Mohammed Nazir bin Lep and Mohammed Farik bin Amin – but some doubt whether they will be able to get a fair trial.
“A recurring feature of the war on terrorism has been to call terrorism an unprecedented and exceptional act. This is a strategy that has been used by many groups, movements and governments throughout history, ”said Al Jazeera Ian Wilson, a senior professor of politics and security at Murdoch University in Australia.
“This”extraordinary ‘ nature has been used to rationalize measures that circumvent or repeal existing legal frameworks and legal frameworks, including those enshrined in the constitutions, such as the right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence. This ‘state of emergency’ in response to the alleged threat and threat of terrorism has led to a significant deterioration of the rule of law and major changes in favor of liberalism in democratic states. “
Wilson says Guantanamo Bay is an example of this approach – a place that Washington considers “exceptional sovereignty,” but it also appears somewhere outside the formal legal jurisdiction of the United States.
Torture
Detainees like Hambali have not only been denied legal rights and due process in the United States, but also those who are being tried in war crimes in the Geneva Conventions.
Hambali, through his lawyers, alleges that he was brutally tortured since his arrest in Thailand in 2003 and then taken to a secret detention center run by the CIA Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and tortured as part of the agency’s surrender. , The Arrest and Interrogation Program (RDI), sometimes referred to as the “torture program.”
Encep Nurjamen, also known as Hambali, in a photo provided by the Federal Office of the Public Defender of Guantanamo (Cuba). [File: Federal Public Defender’s Office via AP Photo]The policy was taken after the September 11 attacks on the United States, when President Bush acknowledged that certain techniques of torture could be justified if they were able to extract intelligence that would prevent further attacks on the country. Under international law, torture is never justified.
According to Hambali’s lawyer, the Indonesian was stripped naked, deprived of food and sleep, and placed in a stressful position – such as kneeling on the floor above his head – for hours on end.
He was also allegedly subjected to a “wall”: a torture technique in which interrogators put a neck around the detainee’s neck and hit his head against a wall.
Other Guantanamo detainees have described him as such sexual assault and waterboarding while in custody.
The Senate Intelligence Committee investigated the CIA’s delivery program at Guantanamo and other allegations of so-called CIA black spots around the world.
A report published in 2014 found that the torture techniques used – euphemistically referred to as “improved interrogation techniques” – were not only inhuman but also effective in gaining intelligence.
A majority of the detainees, including Hambali, provided misinformation to the authorities simply to stop the torture, the report said.
“It simply came to our notice then. [Hambali] the interrogators assessed that they wanted to be heard, “the report said, citing a CIA cable.
‘The World’s Worst’
During his time with Jemaah Islamiyah, who was affiliated with al-Qaeda, Hambali was often described as a “money man,” according to Abbas.
His main role was to raise and distribute funds from many of the organization’s donors, including former al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, who is believed to have sent money for the bombing directly to Hambali.
Hambali is accused of taking part in the 2003 attacks on the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta and the previous year’s Bali attacks, which killed more than 200 people together. [File: Weda/EPA]However, Abbas said he agreed with Hambali Bin Laden that civilians could be targeted in terrorist attacks, something that is highly debatable among other JI actors, many of whom considered military targets only as fair play.
“We were trained in a military camp in Afghanistan with military knowledge and I was not comfortable with attacking civilian targets,” Abbas said.
“I wouldn’t accept it. No one who took part in the Bali bombing was brave enough to ask me anything. They knew I would never accept the killing of civilians. Those who agreed were wrong, and that’s what I said. “
Three of the main perpetrators of the Bali attack were sentenced to death in Indonesia runa fourth perpetrator, Ali Imroni, was sentenced to life in prison after apologizing and remorse.
Imron has always said that Hambali had no prior knowledge of the attack.
Twenty years after the bombing – the deadliest attack in Southeast Asia – Abbas says his former member must return to Indonesia to stand trial.
Ranto Sibarani is a view shared by Indonesian human rights lawyer, who says the Indonesian government should try to negotiate his repatriation.
“Despite serious allegations or accusations against Hambali, he is still an Indonesian citizen who deserves protection under the law,” Sibarani told Al Jazeera in August.
“It’s a big question that will be on the trial,” Paradis said. “Does the United States have the power to try him?” Terrorism is not a war crime. ”
In 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice and Defense stated that military commissions were “fair, effective, and lawful.”
“Military commissions have been used by the United States to prosecute those who have violated the law of war for more than two centuries,” he said in a press release.
Indonesia has prosecuted other suspects in the Bali bombings and sentenced three to death. A fourth was sentenced to life imprisonment after Ali Imron (pictured) apologized and regretted it. [File: Widhia/EPA]There is no date for the trial of Hambali, but many are pessimistic about how the legal process will be handled when the commission is finally up and running.
“Military trials are completely flawed and the legal process has been completely jeopardized by the CIA’s torture program,” said Quinton Temby, an assistant professor of public policy at Monash University in Indonesia.
“It’s the worst of both worlds: the detainees will not receive a fair trial and the families of the victims will not see the courts being held accountable in court.”
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