KUALA LUMPUR: Diplomatic efforts between Malaysia and the United States (US) are underway to discuss the possible release of two Malaysians currently detained in Guantanamo Bay.
Newly-appointed US Ambassador to Malaysia, Edgard D Kagan, while declining to elaborate on the matter, said US authorities are in contact with its Malaysian counterparts.
"We are in contact with the Malaysian government regarding this issue.
"I don't wish to prejudge it as there are many complicated aspects to this but we believe that we have a very effective partnership with the Malaysian government on this and we will continue to work closely with them," he said in a media roundtable at the ambassador's residence here today.
The two Malaysians, Mohamad Farik Amin, 48, and Mohammed Nazir Lep, 47, were arrested for their role in the 2002 Bali bombings which claimed 202 lives.
They have been in custody for 21 years. They were arrested in Thailand in 2003 after the attack but did not undergo trial until this year.
In Jan this year, a military jury sentenced the men to five additional years in detention.
Any chance of an earlier return hinges on diplomatic communications between Malaysia and the US.
In late January 2024, under a plea bargain, both men reached agreements with prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay to charges of being accessories to the terrorist attacks in Bali, where after a short trial, US military judge Lt. Col. Wesley A. Braun gave the duo a five-year jail sentence.
Also, under the plea bargain, both will have to testify against Encep Nurjaman a.k.a. Hambali, the former leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah movement – an affiliate of Al-Qaeda – and the mastermind of the Bali bombings.
Mohammed Farik and Mohammed Nazir have been held in confinement in the US in various Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) facilities since the summer of 2003 and in Guantanamo since 2006.