Posted June 29, 2017 15:13:19

Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty against Riduan "Hambali" Isomuddin, who allegedly ordered the deadly 2002 Bali nightclub bombings in Indonesia, a US military official has said .

Hambali, who has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2006, was notified last week that prosecutors are preparing to try him before a military commission at the US base in Cuba on a number of terrorism charges.

Photo: Hambali was detained in 2003 before being held by the CIA for three years. (Reuters: Police handout)

He has been accused of conspiring with leaders of Al Qaeda in a series of attacks, including the Bali bombings in October 2002 which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

The charge sheet, obtained by ABC News recounts numerous plots for terrorist attacks in Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

A Pentagon legal official, known as the convening authority, must still approve the charges before the case can proceed to an arraignment.

The chief defence counsel for military commissions, Marine Corps Brigadier General John Baker, said in an email he was notified that prosecutors do not intend to seek the death penalty even though some of the charges are potentially capital offences.

Brigadier General Baker said he would submit a request for additional resources to "effectively represent" Hambali, but the decision to not seek the death penalty means he will not have to find experienced capital attorneys. Such lawyers are typically civilians.

A US Department of Defense spokesman declined to comment because the charges had not yet been forwarded to the convening authority.

Long delays for death penalty cases

There are two military commission death penalty cases pending at Guantanamo and both have been bogged down for years in pretrial litigation.

One case involves five men charged with planning and aiding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.

The other is for the alleged mastermind of the deadly October 2000 bombing attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.

Here's what we know about the man once dubbed South-East Asia's Osama bin Laden, Riduan "Hambali" Isomuddin.

Both have stalled largely due to issues related to the fact that the defendants were held for years in clandestine CIA facilities and subjected to treatment now widely regarded as torture.

Any trial of Hambali would involve similar issues.

The 53-year-old Indonesian was also held by the CIA and also subjected to what the US Government has called its "enhanced" interrogation program.

He is accused of being the "operational mastermind" of the South-East Asia-based Islamic extremist group known as Jemaah Islamiyah, an affiliate of Al Qaeda.

Hambali is one of 41 prisoners still held at Guantanamo.

If the case against him moves forward, he would be the first charged since Donald Trump became US President.

AP/ABC

Topics: terrorism, unrest-conflict-and-war, crime, law-crime-and-justice, united-states, bali, indonesia, asia