Guantanamo Detainee First Charged Under Trump Goes To Trial
Riduan “Hambali” Isomuddin, 53, will be the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to go to trial during the Trump presidency. Isomuddin was first recommended for trial in 2010 but Obama refused to prosecute anyone who was on his speed dial. He is the one responsible for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings and the 2003 attack on the JW Marriott in Jakarta. The two bombings killed over 200 people. Seven of them were Americans.
The war court at Guantanamo Bay has charged an Indonesian detainee with directing two terrorist attacks in the first new terror charges there under the Donald Trump administration, according to a recent report.
Riduan “Hambali” Isomuddin, 53, has been “charged with directing the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings and the 2003 attack on the JW Marriott in Jakarta” that together killed more than 200 people, according to the Miami Herald.
Hambali (Riduan Isamuddin) is a 53-year-old citizen of Indonesia. He is one of seventeen high-value detainees. As of January 2010, the Guantanamo Review Task Force had recommended him for prosecution. As of June 27, 2017, he has been held at Guantanamo for ten years and nine months.
A senior Pentagon official who is the civilian overseeing the court, Harvey Rishikof, will decide whether to go forward and to authorize a death-penalty case. Hambali would be the 11th of 41 detainees in war crimes proceedings.
Hambali’s charge sheet – dated June 20 and obtained by the Herald – alleges he directed three simultaneous bombings on October 12, 2002, in a pub, near a dance club and the U.S. consulate, that killed 202, including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, and seven Americans.
