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25-04-2023
GUANTANAMO BAY/ MEDAN: Conditions at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp have been described as “not great, but not horrific” by the lawyer of Indonesian detainee Encep Nurjaman alias Hambali who has been held in the facility operated by the United States for the past 17 years.
Hambali is due back in court on April 24 on charges of masterminding a series of deadly attacks in Indonesia that killed American citizens and targeted US interests, including the 2002 Bali Bombing that killed 200 people, and the JW Marriott attack in 2003 in which 11 people died.
Two Malaysians Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep and Mohammed Farik Bin Amin will be tried alongside him in front of a military commission.
In legal documents seen by media, the US government charges that Hambali “murdered 211 persons, seriously injured at least 31 other persons, and committed multiple other offenses under the law of war.”
Detainees held at Guantanamo, a US base on the Caribbean island of Cuba are deemed “enemy combatants” by the US authorities, and tried in military courts that deny them the constitutional rights of those tried on US soil.
Even after more than 20 years in operation, little is known about the life of those held there. Members of the media are not allowed to speak to the detainees directly and must apply for special clearance to attend hearings at the military commissions only some of which are deemed “open to the public”.
Other than attending the hearings in person, media can only observe legal proceedings at Guantanamo via a secure video link at Fort Meade, a military installation based in Maryland, which also requires pre-approved clearance.
Media has been trying to interview Hambali for nearly a year, sending questions to his legal team about his life in the camp. The team is led by James Hodes who has represented him for the past three years.
Hodes told that many lawyers who represent detainees incarcerated at Guantanamo work for the Department of Defense (DOD) but that many were also “recruited from civilian life to work on these cases”. Some are contractors who are paid by the government but not employees of the government, he added.
“My impressions gleaned, not necessarily from conversations with my client, are that the detainees are still subject to certain limitations, but that Hambali and the other detainees have the ability to pray and have the ability to exercise their right to freedom of religion,” Hodes told media.
“It is also my understanding that Hambali was doing his best to observe Ramadan, was fasting at the camp and was allowed to do that.”
In previous years, former detainees have alleged that they were not allowed to observe the Muslim holy month of Ramadan during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. (Int’l News Desk)
