Accused Bali bombing ‘mastermind’ may never face trial in US due to torture

Hambali - the accused mastermind who led the extremist group behind the Bali and Jakarta bombings - may never face court, his lawyer is claiming.

The man accused of being the ‘mastermind’ behind the extremist group who carried out the 2002 Bali bombings and the Jakarta hotel bombing almost a year later may never face trial in US because of his torture.

Hambali has been held, isolated in US prison camp Guantanamo, where only 40 detainees remain.

In 2010 he was recommended for prosecution but as it stands he has been in prison there for 12.5 years.

His family in Java, Indonesia, want to see him face trial on home soil, but his lawyer fears the US won’t let him before a court because it won’t want any more details of the brutal torture conducted by the CIA torture program to come to light.

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After the September 11 attacks on the US, then-president George W Bush allowed the CIA to covertly detain suspected terrorists.

From there CIA sites were set up globally and detainees were subjected to what was referred to as “enhanced interrogation”.

Terror suspect Hambali, also known as Riduan Isamuddin. Picture: Supplied

Techniques designed to humiliate and degrade were used to pry information from suspects — reportedly including sleep deprivation, auditory overload and waterboarding.

The torture methods were used for almost a decade until President Barack Obama ended the practice when he was in the oval office.

As for Hambali, the US alleges he led al Qa’ida influenced jihadist group Jemaah Islamiah, who carried out the Bali bombings which killed 202 people including 88 Australians.

They were also responsible for the Marriot Hotel bombing in Jakarta in 2003 and the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

In 2005 a second Bali bombing took place, killing four Australians and another Marriot Hotel bombing occurred in 2009.

“JI has been responsible for preparing, planning or assisting in the doing of terrorist attacks against a range of targets, but particularly Christian, Western and regional governments’ interests in South-East Asia,” Australia’s National Security brief on the group states.

“Those previously subjected to JI attacks include hotels, bars, diplomatic premises, transport and military facilities and churches.”

Hambali reportedly spent three years in the CIA ‘torture program’.

Hambali as shown in the US Government file on Guantánamo Bay inmates. Picture: Supplied.

The ABC reports Hambali’s military defence lawyer, who was assigned to him when he was formally charged by the US war court, believes it will be difficult to conduct a fair trial in line with US constitution.

Major James Valentine wants the Indonesian government to take over the case because the accused is from there and the offences he is charged with occurred inside Indonesia.

“A trial in Indonesia would be more appropriate and the jurisdiction is more appropriate there than (in the US),” he told ABC.

He said he was aware the Hamabli had been subject to solitary confinement, humiliation, starvation and sleep deprivation at the hands of interrogators but the full extent of his torture was yet to be known.

Because of this, Major Valentine said it posed a dilemma for the US authorities that want to bring Hambali to trial.

“When the US captured him in 2003 they made a decision — they could either interrogate him using torture based interrogation methods, for intelligence purposes. Or they could interrogate him in accordance with the rule of law for the sake of providing evidence at trial for a future prosecution,” he said.

Hambali is widely accused of being the operational commander of Jemaah Islamiah. Picture: Supplied

He said a trial would only go ahead in the US if intelligence authorities approved the charges, but that would involve those who oversaw the torture agreeing to shed light on what happened in the three years Hambali was exposed to it.

“They can never let the world know what they did to him, so how can they have a fair trial where they allow the production and the discovery of evidence to the defence,” he said.

Most of the names associated with the Bali bombing have either been executed or were killed by police.

Another so-called ‘mastermind’ and radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was granted early release from prison on humanitarian grounds earlier this year, but Indonesia reviewed the decision after Australia condemned it.

More to come.

Originally published as Accused Bali bombing ‘mastermind’ may never face trial in US due to torture