Hambali faces ‘not great, not horrific’ conditions as trial looms

Medan, Indonesia – Circumstances on the Guantanamo Bay detention camp have been described to Al Jazeera as “not nice, however not horrific” by the lawyer of Indonesian detainee Encep Nurjaman, alias Hambali, who has been held within the facility operated by the USA for 17 years.

Hambali is due again in court docket on Monday on expenses of masterminding a collection of lethal assaults in Indonesia that killed Americans and focused US pursuits, together with the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 200 folks, and the JW Marriott lodge assault in 2003 in Jakarta, during which 11 folks died.

Two Malaysians, Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep and Mohammed Farik Bin Amin, might be tried alongside Hambali earlier than a army fee.

In authorized paperwork seen by Al Jazeera, the US authorities alleges that Hambali “murdered 211 individuals, significantly injured no less than 31 different individuals, and dedicated a number of different offenses below the regulation of battle”.

Detainees held at Guantanamo, a US naval base on the Caribbean island of Cuba, are deemed “enemy combatants” by US authorities and tried in army courts that deny them the constitutional rights of these tried on US soil.

Even after greater than 20 years of operations, little is thought concerning the lives of the folks held in Guantanamo. Members of the media will not be allowed to talk to the detainees straight and should apply for particular clearance to attend hearings held by the army commissions, solely a few of that are “open to the general public”.

Apart from attending the hearings in particular person, media might solely observe authorized proceedings at Guantanamo through a safe video hyperlink at Fort Meade, a army set up in Maryland, which additionally requires clearance.

Al Jazeera has been making an attempt to interview Hambali for almost a 12 months, sending inquiries to his authorized crew about his life within the camp. The defence crew is led by James Hodes, who has represented him for 3 years.

Hodes informed Al Jazeera that many attorneys who characterize detainees incarcerated at Guantanamo work for the US Division of Protection however many are additionally “recruited from civilian life to work on these circumstances”. Some are contractors who’re paid by the federal government however not staff of the federal government, he stated.

“My impressions gleaned, not essentially from conversations with my shopper, are that the detainees are nonetheless topic to sure limitations however that Hambali and the opposite detainees have the power to wish and have the power to train their proper to freedom of faith,” Hodes stated.

“It is usually my understanding that Hambali was doing his greatest to look at Ramadan, was fasting on the camp and was allowed to do this,” the lawyer added.

In earlier years, former detainees have alleged they weren’t allowed to look at the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, throughout which Muslims quick from dawn to sundown.

Hambali was captured in Ayutthaya, Thailand, in 2003 earlier than being taken to alleged CIA black websites in Morocco and Romania the place he was tortured, in keeping with a 2014 US Senate Intelligence Committee Report, popularly referred to as the Torture Report.

He was transferred in 2006 to Guantanamo, which as soon as held almost 800 folks, and is one in every of solely 30 nonetheless there.

Of these remaining, 12 have been charged with crimes, together with Hambali and his two co-defendants.

The US authorities has lengthy been accused of inserting the power exterior the regulation and undermining detainees’ honest trial rights.

“The reality is that it’s a advanced query of historical past and politics,” human rights lawyer and nationwide safety scholar Michel Paradis, who has additionally represented Guantanamo detainees, informed Al Jazeera. “The federal government has contended that Guantanamo is a overseas nation for the needs of US regulation.”

He stated which means the applicability of staple items, like due course of below the US Structure, is unclear on the precept that US legal guidelines usually don’t apply abroad.

“So in relation to the rights to a good trial below the US Structure, it stays an open query whether or not the army commissions are behaving lawfully or whether or not any conviction obtained in violation of these honest trial ensures goes to be handled as a nullity when it will get to federal court docket,” Paradis stated.

Hambali and his authorized crew have all the time denied that he knew of the Bali bomb plot prematurely.

These straight concerned within the assault have informed Al Jazeera that, so far as they had been conscious, the bombings had been deliberate by senior Jemaah Islamiyah members Ali Ghufron and Imam Samudra. Each males had been executed in Indonesia in 2008 after being discovered responsible of masterminding the bombings together with a 3rd Jemaah Islamiyah member, Amrozi.

In 2021, the US authorities formally charged Hambali, Bin Lep and Bin Amin though they’ve hardly ever appeared in court docket since after classes meant to happen final 12 months had been cancelled as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s thought that Hambali himself contracted the virus on the finish of January after what sources described to Al Jazeera as “a large outbreak” among the many detainees.

A superb cook dinner

Through the years, Guantanamo has confronted scrutiny over the inhumane therapy of detainees, together with using torture methods akin to sensory deprivation, significantly at Camp 7, which was closed in 2021 over considerations concerning the state of the constructing, which reportedly overflowed with sewage and suffered from repeated energy cuts.

Detainees now are held in Camp 5 and Camp 6, the latter for so-called low-value detainees and the previous for high-value detainees, a designation given to prisoners who went by way of the CIA’s torture programme.

A lot of these males are getting outdated and have well being issues exacerbated by the abuse they’ve endured over a long time.

Patrick Hamilton, the top of delegation for the US and Canada on the Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross, stated on Friday that for these nonetheless confined at Guantanamo the “bodily and psychological well being wants are rising and turning into more and more difficult”.

Hodes stated he believes that life at Guantanamo had change into barely much less inflexible since Camp 7’s closure and detainees had been now given a sure component of autonomy concerning meals and allowed to look at non secular events.

“My impression is that they obtain meals frequently from the galley,” he stated. “The federal government is making each effort, we consider, to be sure that the meals is halal.”

“I consider that Hambali is ready to recondition the meals and use a few of the uncooked elements to make Indonesian dishes. By all accounts, it’s well-known across the camp that Hambali is an efficient cook dinner.”

The hearings held from Monday will concentrate on points that embrace discovering acceptable interpreters for the defendants in addition to alleged delays from the prosecution crew within the discovery course of, throughout which proof is meant to be exchanged between the prosecution and defence.

For as but unexplained causes, the hearings, initially scheduled to final for 2 weeks into early Could, have been diminished to a single week.

Hodes informed Al Jazeera that he had not been knowledgeable of the rationale for the change.

For his or her half, Indonesian authorities have stated Hambali just isn’t thought of an Indonesian citizen as a result of he was travelling on a Spanish passport when he was arrested in Thailand.

In 2016, the then-coordinating political, authorized and safety affairs minister, Luhut Pandjaitan, stated Indonesia had no plans to repatriate Hambali from Guantanamo.

Within the meantime, Hodes stated Hambali is making an attempt to dwell as regular a life as doable throughout the confines of his state of affairs.

“My understanding is that he’s doing his greatest to train and that he has entry to gadgets akin to train bikes within the camp,” he stated.

“It’s a reality that he’s making an attempt to dwell with dignity in an terrible state of affairs.”