Malaysians held in US’s Guantanamo Bay prison returned home after 18 years 

Two Malaysian men held at the United States military prison in Guantanamo Bay for 18 years have been returned home, Malaysia’s state news agency reports.

Malaysia’s Inspector General of Police Razarudin Husain said Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep arrived in the country late on Wednesday “in good and healthy condition”, and were happy to reunite with their families, according to Bernama news agency.

The pair, who had pleaded guilty to charges related to the 2002 Bali bombing that killed more than 200 people, will undergo “comprehensive rehabilitation” and an assessment process before reintegrating back into society, the police chief said.

“Everyone deserves a second chance,” he said.

Announcing the transfer of the two from Guantanamo to Malaysia, the Pentagon said the detainees had been cooperative and provided testimony against the alleged ringleader of the Bali bombing – Encep Nurjaman, known as Hambali.

Nurjaman remains in custody in Guantanamo awaiting resumption of pre-trial hearings in January related to the Bali attack and the 2003 bombing of a hotel in Indonesia’s Jakarta.

Earlier this week, the US Department of Defense announced the repatriation of a Kenyan man who had been held at Guantanamo Bay without charge for 17 years.

Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu was returned to Kenya on Tuesday, which left 15 other people who were never charged yet remain behind bars at the military prison, though they have been long cleared of wrongdoing.

Bajabu was arrested by authorities in Kenya in 2007 and transferred to Guantanamo weeks later for alleged involvement with al-Qaeda’s branch in East Africa.

Amnesty International said the release of the two Malaysians and the Kenyan was the right move, “but it isn’t enough”.

“Fifteen men remain who have never been charged with any crimes and have long been cleared by US security agencies to leave Guantanamo, some for more than a decade,” Amnesty’s Daphne Eviatar said in a statement.

“President [Joe] Biden must transfer these men before he leaves office, or he will continue to bear responsibility for the abhorrent practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial by the US government,” Eviatar said.

Following the latest releases, 27 detainees remain at Guantanamo, down from a peak of nearly 800 when the prison camp was established by then-President George W Bush following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US by al-Qaeda.

Hundreds of mostly Muslim men were detained around the world in the aftermath of 9/11 and the US’s so-called “war on terror”. Many were held at clandestine CIA facilities, known as “black sites”, where they faced torture in an “enhanced interrogation” programme authorised by the Bush administration, before their transfer to Guantanamo.

Amnesty International said Guantanamo Bay remains a “glaring, longstanding stain on the human rights record of the United States”.