My brother, the ‘Osama bin Laden of Southeast Asia’
Alleged mastermind of the Bali bombings, Hambali was ‘just an ordinary person’, according to his younger sibling
For the Past 13 years, al-Qaeda’s most powerful leader in Southeast Asia, Indonesian Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, has been held in Guantanamo Bay prison, out of public sight but still very much in the minds of militants and security agencies across the region.
Hambali, 52, has a fearsome reputation. The man, known as the Osama bin Laden of Southeast Asia, is thought to have masterminded the Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people in 2002, the Christmas Eve multi-city church bombings in Indonesia that killed 18 in 2000, and the Jakarta Marriott Hotel car bombing that killed 12 in 2003.
Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is widely accused of being the operational commander of Jemaah Islamiyah. Photo: AFP
While he has renounced his former ways – telling a review board last August he bore “no ill feelings towards the United States” and “just wanted to move on with life and be peaceful” – that review board this week turned down his application for release, ruling that he continued to be a “significant threat to the security of the United States”.
Alleged Bali bombing figure Hambali will not be freed from Guantanamo, US says
The board, created by the administration of US President Barack Obama to help winnow down the prison population at Guantanamo as part of a broader effort to close the detention centre, cited Hambali’s “significant role in major terrorist attacks,” as well as a failure to show remorse as factors in its decision.
