Malaysia yesterday offered to take back two citizens who are prominent terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison after US President Barack Obama ordered the closure of the facility.
Malaysian Prime Minister Ahmad Ahmad Badawi said his government was seeking permission for its police officers to meet the two men for the first time since their transfer in September 2006 from secret CIA prisons to the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay for trials.
“If possible, we’d like to bring both of them home” so that they can be held in Malaysian custody if necessary, the national news agency, Bernama, quoted Abdullah as telling reporters during a visit to Dubai.
DETAINEES
An estimated 245 men are being held at the US naval base in Cuba, most of whom have been detained for years without being charged with a crime. Among the issues the Obama administration has to resolve is where to put those detainees — whether back in their home countries or at other US federal detention centers.
The two Malaysians — Mohd Farik Bin Amin, better known as Zubair, and Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, also known as Lillie — are so-called high-value detainees at Guantanamo. They were captured separately in Thailand in 2003 and have undergone US military hearings to affirm their status as “enemy combatants” to be tried in military trials.
CHARGES
Mohd Farik allegedly helped the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah’s operational planner case targets for potential attacks. He is believed to have been tapped to be a suicide operative for an al-Qaeda attack on Los Angeles.
Mohammed Nazir had allegedly helped transfer funds from al-Qaeda to Jemaah Islamiyah, some of which was used for operational expenses in a 2003 car bombing at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people.
Abdullah yesterday lauded Obama’s decision to shut the Guantanamo facility within a year, saying Malaysia “is happy because he has fulfilled his promise.”
It was not immediately clear if Abdullah’s comments indicated that Malaysian authorities might detain Mohd Farik and Mohammed Nazir under a law that allows for indefinite detention without trial of people regarded as security threats. Aides traveling with Abdullah and foreign ministry officials could not immediately be contacted.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officials said on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 150 Russian troops were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers
A shark attack off Egypt’s Red Sea coast killed a tourist and injured another, authorities said on Sunday, with an Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs source identifying both as Italian nationals. “Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the northern Marsa Alam area, which led to the injury of one and the death of the other,” the Egyptian Ministry of Environment said in a statement. A source at the Italian foreign ministry said that the man killed was a 48-year-old resident of Rome. The injured man was 69 years old. They were both taken to hospital in Port Ghalib, about 50km north
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
BARRIER BLAME: An aviation expert questioned the location of a solid wall past the end of the runway, saying that it was ‘very bad luck for this particular airplane’ A team of US investigators, including representatives from Boeing, on Tuesday examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea, while authorities were conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. Video showed the aircraft, without its landing gear deployed, crash-landed on its belly and overshoot a runaway at Muan International Airport before it slammed into a barrier and burst into flames. The plane was seen having engine trouble.
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