Three Detainees Held at Guantánamo Bay Sent Back to Home Countries
The Pentagon announced that three detainees held at the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba have been transferred back to their home countries of Malaysia and Kenya. The two Malaysian detainees, Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep, were sent back to Malaysia after they pleaded guilty before a military commission to multiple offenses, including murder and destruction of property in violation of the law of war.
According to the Department of Defense, the two men cooperated with the U.S. government and provided deposition testimony against the alleged mastermind of the Al Qaeda-affiliated attacks on nightclubs in Bali, Indonesia in 2002 and the attack on the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2003. As part of their pretrial agreements, they were sentenced to five years of confinement, with the option to be repatriated or transferred to a third-party sovereign nation.
The third detainee, a Kenyan man named Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, was repatriated to Kenya after 17 years at Guantánamo Bay without charge. He was arrested by Kenyan authorities in 2007 and was accused of belonging to an Al Qaeda branch in East Africa.
The Pentagon stated that Bajabu’s detention was no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States. The transfer of these detainees marks a significant step towards the goal of reducing the detainee population at Guantánamo Bay and potentially closing the facility in the future. Currently, 27 detainees remain at the base, with 15 eligible for transfer, 3 for a Periodic Review Board, 7 involved in the military commissions process, and 2 who have been convicted and sentenced by military commissions.