The Pentagon released two prisoners from Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday, the second and third releases from the notorious wartime detention camp this week.
Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lepp were deported back to Malaysia, where both are citizens, According To the United States Department of Defense. The men had been held by the US since 2003 and held at Guantanamo Bay since 2006 due to their ties to Al Qaeda and an Indonesian extremist group called Jemaah Islamiyah.
Defense officials said the repatriation of Amin and Lep took place as part of an agreement and an agreement with the Malaysian government. Each pleaded guilty before a US military commission to various war crimes, including murder, intentionally causing grievous bodily harm, conspiracy, and destruction of property. He also provided deposition testimony that could be used against a different prisoner, Ancep Nurjaman, who is believed to be the “mastermind” responsible for al Qaeda attacks in Bali and Jakarta between 2002 and 2003.
Their conditions for release from Guantánamo Bay called for an additional five-year term of imprisonment for each prisoner, to be served either in the country to which they were returned or in a sovereign third-party nation.
The release of Amin and Lepp was announced a day after the Pentagon released another prisoner, Mohammed Abdul Malik Bazabu. Freed from captivity at Guantánamo Bay And sent back to Kenya. Detained by the US for 18 years without criminal charges, Bazabu was the first prisoner to be freed from the camp in almost a year. US defense officials said that in December 2021 a review board determined that detaining Bazabu was “no longer necessary to protect against the continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States.” The board made this determination and recommended that Bazabu be transferred out of Guantánamo Bay.
“The United States supports ongoing U.S. efforts to conduct a thoughtful and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the Defense Department said in a statement on the release of the three prisoners. Appreciates the support.”
There are 27 prisoners still in custody at Guantanamo Bay due to the latest repatriation efforts. Of those, 15 are eligible for transfer, three are eligible for evaluation by a review board, and seven are being prosecuted through the military commission process. According to the Pentagon, only the last two prisoners have been convicted and sentenced by military commissions.