Hambali, South-East Asia’s last Guantanamo detainee: Comment
Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali, remains the last South-East Asian detainee at Guantanamo Bay after two decades of detention. His case highlights the shifting priorities of U.S. foreign policy regarding the war on terror.
Why it matters
The indefinite detention of high-profile terrorism suspects raises ongoing questions about international law, human rights, and the legacy of post-9/11 security policies.
JAKARTA: Captured in Thailand in August 2003 during the height of the United States-led war on terror, Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, has spent more than two decades in detention.
South-East Asia’s most infamous terrorist figure was shuttled through CIA “black sites” before his 2006 transfer to the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, where, more than 22 years after his capture, he still awaits trial.
The December 2024 repatriation of his two Malaysian codefendants, Mohammed Farik Amin and Mohammed Nazir Lep, has left Hambali as the last South-East Asian detainee at Guantanamo Bay.
The Malaysian duo pleaded guilty for their roles in the Oct. 12, 2002 Bali bombings. Yet rather than signaling that Hambali’s case was nearing resolution, this has only sharpened the question of whether it ever will.
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