Do Our Infamous Bali Bombers Deserve A Second Chance At Life

---

 
Farik Amin and Nazir Lep were in their early twenties when they got entangled with Indonesian radical and terror mastermind, Encep Nurjaman, better known as Hambali, who planned two deadly bomb blasts in Bali and Jakarta more than twenty years ago.
The bombings of the Sari Club and Paddy’s Irish Bar on Oct 12, 2002, killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Another attack linked to them took place at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta on Aug 5, 2003, killing 12.
In their testimonies before a military court in Guantanamo, Cuba, the duo said much of the planning of these devastating attacks was carried out in Malaysia, where Hambali even had a wife.
Both Farik, then 25, and Nazir, 24, an engineering graduate from a local university, were arrested by the CIA in Thailand in 2003.
Following a pre-trial agreement struck with the US government in January this year, the duo pleaded guilty in a US military court to the commission of war crimes.
They expressed remorse for helping the extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah to carry out the attacks and also admitted to helping Hambali elude capture.
Both have also provided deposition testimony for use against Hambali, who will go on trial in March next year.
The court officially sentenced them to 23 years in prison, but on June 13, approved confinement sentences of five years to each of them, after a pre-trial agreement was struck.
It also recommended that both men be repatriated or transferred to a third-party sovereign nation to serve the remainder of their respective sentences. The deals were struck as part of the US government’s move to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention centre permanently.
The duo were brought back home under a shroud of secrecy, having been flown to a secret destination last week.
News of Farik and Nazir’s return was greeted with mixed reactions on social media. Some feared recidivism–the tendency to commit further offences—which, they claimed, would pose a danger to the country.
Others were more welcoming, saying they should be given a second chance following long detention in solitary confinement and the inhumane CIA torture.
Meanwhile, the US and Australian governments had asked Malaysia to draw up concrete rehabilitation plans for the duo. According to Australian news reports, family members of the victims expressed their unhappiness with the repatriation.
“Terrorists should never be getting special deals. The fact that one terrorist is giving evidence against another doesn’t lessen the pain for any of us,” one family member reportedly said.
The trial court saw the duo express their deepest regret and repentance over their actions, saying they only knew the extent of the carnage after the bombings.
They apologised unreservedly to the victims’ family members in open court and begged for forgiveness. Cynics say this was their only way of coming home alive but does not mean they have given up their ideology.
But Farik and Nazir also suffered serious injustices when detained at the notorious military prison.
The US has on many occasions called out detentions without trial all over the world, and, in the past, strongly condemned Malaysia’s now-repealed Internal Security Act 1960.
But that didn’t stop it from detaining Fikri, Nazir and numerous other persons at its detention centre in Guantanamo Bay and subjected them to prolonged torture at the hands of CIA agents.
Torture sketches
Farik sketched some of the types of torture he underwent. These were declassified and submitted at his trial. They suggest that the torture he underwent was dehumanising and traumatising.
They included being made to stand while deprived of sleep; being put in stress positions; being stripped, restrained and photographed nude; mock waterboarding; being hooded while in solitary confinement; and being placed in a darkened dungeon.
Meanwhile, the governments of the inmates’ home countries, paralysed by the threat of terrorism, were too weak to question the US as to what became of them.
According to a source, one of the Malaysian inmates now suffers from serious psychological issues attributed to the prolonged solitary confinement and torture he underwent.
The psychological damage suffered by Farik and Nazir, both single, is likely to be permanent. They would possibly require lifelong medication and support from their families. As one family member said, even if jailed for life, they would have been free by now.
Anti-terror expert Ahmad El-Muhammady from the International Islamic University says the cases of Farik and Nazir are unique. He understands that the government has a special programme to rehabilitate them.
Ahmad, who helps the home ministry with the deradicalisation of terror suspects and convicts, said Malaysia has been fairly successful in this area.
“Most of them realise they have been misled into terror activities and come back to lead a normal life. There are very few cases of recidivism, and they are easily tracked by the authorities.
“After the mental and physical torture they went through for two decades and surviving it, the psychological wounds must be really deep. They need help more than anything to start leading a new life,” he told FMT.
Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail recently mapped out a rehabilitation plan the government has drawn up for Farik and Nazir. It is aimed at supporting the duo as they transition into a new “controlled environment” before being reintegrated into family life.
The end goal is to ensure that they are able to live independently and productively within the community.
At the end of the day, even Farik and Nazir deserve a second chance at life. - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

---