WASHINGTON - The world will soon get a new look at the man accused of plotting the October 2002 bombing in Kuta, Bali, that killed 202 people, and the 2003 attacks at the JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta that killed 11.
It has been some 18 years coming. Hambali, now about 57, was captured in Ayutthaya, Thailand, on Aug 14, 2003 in a joint US-Thai operation and transferred to Guantanamo in September 2006.
He is believed by investigators to have masterminded the strategy of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror organisation of striking at soft targets. JI has previously been linked to Al-Qaeda and later to the Islamic State.
Hambali was not formally charged in the US with any crime until January this year and remains wanted in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines in connection with terrorist plots.
In Dec 2001, 15 JI operatives were arrested in Singapore for planning attacks on government buildings, embassies and US servicemen in the Republic.
In 2002 came the Bali bombing - the worst terrorist attack ever on Indonesian soil. Then in 2003, the group carried out the twin suicide bombings on the JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton in Jakarta.
The charges list Hambali as "Encep Nurjaman, also known as Riduan bin Isomudin, alias HAMBALI".
Two others who will stand trial with him are Mohammed Nazir Lep, alias Lillie, and Mohammed Farik Amin, also known as Zubair.
An appendix provides a long list of other aliases of the three.
The charge sheet dated April 2019 lays out, in chilling detail, planning by the three as "principals, as co-conspirators, and as participants" of the Bali and Jakarta attacks, and a string of other plans for attacks against Americans and American interests - including the idea of attacking American servicemen and sinking an American warship in Singapore.
The three are classified as "alien unprivileged enemy belligerents".
The trio is standing trial on Aug 30 for "offences triable by military commission, including murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, terrorism, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, and destruction of property in violation of the law of war".
A file photo shows an armed Indonesian policeman in front of what remains of the Padi club in Denpasar, Bali, following a car bombing on Oct 13, 2002. PHOTO: AFP
Defence attorneys appointed by the military will speak in their defence. One of the principal points they will be making is that Hambali was tortured in detention.
Additionally, the charge sheet states that "From on or about August 1996 to on or about August 2003, at multiple locations in or around Afghanistan, South-east Asia and elsewhere, the three knowingly conspired and agreed with… Usama bin Laden, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Abu Ba'aysir, Abdullah Sungkar and others, known and unknown".
The Pakistani militant Khalid Shaikh Mohammad is accused of masterminding the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the US and is also being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison on terrorism-related charges.
As the 20th anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks approaches, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad may also finally see a long-delayed formal trial. In summer 2019, a military judge set the date for January 2021, but amid the Covid-19 pandemic, it was again postponed. A new date has not been set.
BANGKOK: Owners of eateries in Bangkok and nearby provinces were left frustrated after a ban on dining-in was reimposed on Monday (Jun 28), a week after the government relaxed COVID-19 control measures.
The ban was announced late Saturday night after Thailand’s daily case numbers rose above 2,000 for several weeks. It was enforced along with other restrictions on interprovincial travel, construction sites and gatherings in various parts of the country, and will last at least 30 days.
This came as a blow to many restaurant owners, some of whom had just begun to recover from the previous dining-in ban.
“How did I feel when I heard about the latest restrictions? Exasperated,” said Mika Apichatsakol. Her vegan eatery Bangkok City Diner had suspended its dining-in services from May 1 to follow the government’s order. Since then, it has only managed to serve food for deliveries.
"We had actually planned to reopen for dine-in on Jul 1. We announced it about a week ago, and now we'll just be going back to deliveries only,” Mika told CNA.
It's that feeling of constantly taking a step forward and then a step back again.
Bangkok City Diner posted this image on its Facebook page on Jun 23, 2021, as it planned to reopen for dine-in services in July. This came shortly before the government reimposed a ban on dining-in at eateries to control COVID-19. (Photo: Bangkok City Diner)
Thailand is battling a third wave of COVID-19 infections, which started in April when a cluster was found at high-end nightclubs in Bangkok.
More than 220,000 people have since tested positive for the coronavirus and at least 1,840 patients have died from the disease.
To curb the spread, the government imposed restrictions on eateries and various businesses. Still, the situation worsened last month when the virus infected inmates in crowded prisons and detention facilities nationwide.
Last week, some control measures were eased and food and beverage outlets were allowed to stay open for diners until 11pm. But that did not last long.
Many new clusters were reported and a number of them involved workers in construction and service industries.
According to Thailand's Disease Control Department, health officials are monitoring more than 100 clusters in Bangkok alone.
The situation prompted Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha to impose certain restrictions in areas with high COVID-19 infections such as Bangkok and its nearby provinces.
Bangkok City Diner is one of many eateries in Bangkok and nearby provinces that were affected by a ban on dining-in reimposed by the government on Jun 28. 2021. (Photo: Bangkok City Diner)
For some restaurateurs, the return of the ban on dining-in services has devastating impact on their businesses and staff members. Each wave of outbreaks came with restrictions that slashed their income and shrank their capital with hardly any compensation from the government.
“I was watching the news until 1am and I was puzzled,” said restaurateur Thavalsak Grajangpho from Ruean Rim Nam in Bangkok.
“I think it’s the same for every restaurant that had done so – all of a sudden, in the morning, we had to cancel all our orders,” he added.
I was quite surprised and I think it’s unfair.
On Monday, Gen Prayut promised compensation for entrepreneurs and employees affected by his latest order. They include restaurant owners, their staff members, construction workers and their employers in Bangkok and its vicinity.
“We’re no less affected than you are, even more so actually because we have to make sure everybody can live through this period. Let me tell you, many countries even have it worse than we do right now,” he said in a press briefing after meeting economic advisors at the Government House.
“I’ll do my best to take care.”
Ruean Rim Nam is one of many restaurants in Bangkok affected by the government's new order to ban dining-in at eateries for one month. (Photo: Thavalsak Grajangpho)
According to Danucha Pichayanan, secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Council, employees affected by the new set of restrictions will receive 50 per cent of their salary but no more than 7,500 baht (US$235) from the government, with an additional 2,000 baht (US$63), if they are registered in the social security system.
Employers will receive 3,000 baht (US$94) for every employee as long as they too are registered in the system. However, the number of employees is capped at 200.
“In case entrepreneurs and employees are not in the system but need help, please quickly register yourselves in the social security system,” Danucha said in a press conference at the Government House on Monday.
“Employers will then receive 3,000 baht for each employee they have. Employees of Thai nationality will then get 2,000 baht each as well.”
However, these employees will not receive the subsidy, which is worth half of their salary. They are required by law to contribute to the social security fund for at least six months before they can receive the subsidy, according to Danucha. The subsidy is available for one month.
For restaurant owners like Thavalsak, who still have to pay rent and workers, the future remains uncertain.
“This wave is worse than the first time and there is no guarantee that after a month of closure, it will really be over,” he told CNA. “I’m angry, definitely. I feel like they don’t empathise with SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) like us at all.”
“I think everyone is wondering why restaurants are shut and not venues like malls, and how many of the COVID-19 clusters are actually caused by restaurants,” Mika added.
HONG KONG: Hong Kong will ban all passenger flights from the United Kingdom from Thursday (Jul 1) to curb the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19, the government said on Monday.
Britain will be specified as extremely high-risk, and people who have stayed in the country for more than two hours will be unable to board passenger flights bound for Hong Kong, it said.
It is the second time Hong Kong has barred arrivals from Britain after a ban that was in force from December 2020 until May.
The government said the ban was due to "the recent rebound of the epidemic situation in the UK and the widespread Delta variant virus strain there, coupled with a number of cases with L452R mutant virus strains detected by tests from people arriving from the UK".
Parents in Hong Kong with children in Britain reacted with shock. They complained that they had paid large sums to comply with COVID-19 testing rules but their children would now be stranded.
Hong Kong already has bans in place on arrivals from Indonesia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines.
The Chinese special administrative region has recorded more than 11,900 cases and 211 deaths because of COVID-19. Most of the city's recent cases over the past month have been imported.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin unveiled a new economic stimulus package worth RM150 billion (US$36.2 billion) on Monday (Jun 28), in an attempt to mitigate the impacts of a continued total lockdown.
Speaking during a televised national address, Mr Muhyiddin said the package – named people protection and economic recovery package (Pemulih) – aims to allow people to cope with the financial difficulties arising from COVID-19.
"I hope this financial package is able to help you continue with your lives in the coming months. I am aware many of you are impacted badly, as a result of battling the COVID-19 pandemic for more than a year," he said.
"Even though millions of Malaysians have received financial help from the government since March 2020 ... I understand that help must be extended as long as the pandemic is ongoing."
He said that RM4.6 billion will be set aside under the special COVID-19 assistance scheme (BKC) to help 11 million people, mainly the elderly and those who have yet to get married.
This includes those in the B40 (bottom 40 per cent) and M40 (middle 40 per cent) categories, who are set to receive between RM250 and RM1,300.
Mr Muhyiddin added that another RM500 million would be set aside for those who have lost income as a result of the pandemic. Under this scheme, around 1 million residents are likely to receive RM500 each.
To help the public with their utilities expenses, the government will give electricity bill discounts of between 5 to 40 per cent to households for three months from July, with a maximum limit of 900 kilowatt hours a month.
For small and medium-sized businesses, Mr Muhyiddin said that the government has agreed to provide additional payments under the special prihatin grant (GKP), where companies which qualify will receive RM500 in September and another RM500 in November.
The Prime Minister said that this scheme could help improve the cash flow for around 1 million small and medium enterprises such as barbers, workshop owners, bakeries and health care centres.
LOAN MORATORIUMS FOR INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESS OWNERS
Mr Muhyiddin also announced that under the Pemulih package, individuals from the B40, M40 and T20 (top 20 per cent) groups, as well as business owners, will be able to receive an automatic six-month moratorium from banks.
Unlike in the previous scheme, applicants for the loan moratorium will no longer be held back by several conditions including requirements to show proof of loss of income or employment due to the pandemic.
"I hope this moratorium initiative will go someway in helping individual borrowers and SMEs in managing their cash flow problems during this challenging period. However, I would also advise the public to resort to this for emergency use only and not to make any additional financial commitments," he said.
A general view of Malaysia's Prime Minister's office, in Putrajaya, Malaysia October 26, 2020. REUTERS/Lim Huey Teng
Prior to Monday's announcement, Putrajaya had rolled out seven stimulus packages worth a total of RM380 billion.
The restrictions were set to end on Monday but Mr Muhyiddin said that they will not be eased until daily cases fell below 4,000.
He also told reporters that a more comprehensive financial assistance package will be extended to lower-income families as well as small and medium enterprises impacted by the pandemic.
"Everyone is waiting to see how the government is going to help those who are impacted. I would like to stress here that assistance will be given to the B40 and M40 groups, and loan moratorium for the T20 group, we will also consider their needs. It will be a comprehensive package," said Mr Muhyiddin at the weekend.
"What's important is for us to give support to all levels of society, and in the current climate, around 12 million individuals are affected. We may increase the level of assistance provided to them," he added.
In a statement on Sunday evening, Senior Minister for Defence Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that phase 1 of the movement control order (MCO) will be maintained until the three key threshold value indicators are achieved.
The indicators are that the number of daily COVID-19 cases drop to below 4,000, the rate of bed usage in intensive care units is at a moderate level and that 10 per cent of the population has received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
"Based on the risk evaluation carried out by the Ministry of Health, the government will maintain the phase 1 period nationwide," said Mr Ismail Sabri in a statement.
"This takes into account the current situation, which has yet to successfully transition from phase 1 to phase 2, where the graph on daily COVID-19 positive cases shows a horizontal trend," he added.
On Monday, Malaysia recorded 5,218 new COVID-19 cases. There are now more than 735,000 cases nationwide. More than 4,900 people have died from COVID-19 in Malaysia.
SYDNEY: Australia's COVID-19 response committee is due to hold an emergency meeting on Monday (Jun 28) as outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant across the country prompted a lockdown in Sydney and renewed restrictions elsewhere.
Around 18 million Australians, or around 70 per cent of the population, are now under some form of lockdown or COVID-related restrictions as officials grapple with COVID-19 flare-ups in almost every state or territory.
"I think we are entering a new phase of this pandemic, with the more contagious Delta strain," federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on Monday, adding Australia was facing a "critical time" in its fight against COVID-19.
The national security committee, chaired by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, will be briefed by the country's chief medical officer later on Monday, Frydenberg said.
Sydney, Australia's most populous city, was plunged into a two-week lockdown over the weekend, while the northern city of Darwin entered a two-day shutdown, as officials grapple to contain the outbreaks.
Australia's Queensland state on Monday reintroduced mandatory masks and limited home gatherings in several areas, including state capital Brisbane, following a similar move by Western Australia officials for state capital Perth. Restrictions remain in place in Victoria state capital Melbourne and national capital Canberra.
A health alert was issued over the weekend for hundreds of passengers after an infected Virgin Australia cabin crew member worked on five different flights covering Brisbane, Melbourne and Gold Coast.
In Sydney, New South Wales state capital, dozens of venues including cafes, shopping centres and public transport routes scattered across the city have been added as virus-exposed locations.
The Darwin lockdown was prompted by the detection of the Delta variant of the virus in a fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) worker at a gold mine after he had left the facility.
Australia has so far fared much better than many other developed countries in tackling the spread of the coronavirus, with just over 30,450 cases and 910 deaths.
Lockdowns, tough social distancing rules and swift contact tracing have helped the country successfully suppress prior outbreaks but the fast-moving Delta variant has alarmed health authorities.
SURFSIDE, Florida: Rescuers digging through the rubble of a Florida beachfront condo sought to reassure families that they were doing as much as possible to find missing loved ones, but the crews said they needed to work carefully for the best chance of uncovering survivors.
As the death toll rose Sunday (Jun 27) to nine, relatives grew increasingly desperate for news and worried about the slow progress and dwindling hopes. No one has been pulled alive from the pile since Thursday, hours after the collapse. Some family members were taken by bus on Sunday to a location near the site after relatives frustrated with the pace of rescue efforts demanded to visit the scene.
“My daughter is 26 years old, in perfect health. She could make it out of there,” one mother told rescuers during a weekend meeting with family members. A video of the meeting was posted by Instagram user Abigail Pereira.
“It’s not enough,” continued the mother, who was among relatives who pushed authorities to bring in experts from other countries to help. “Imagine if your children were in there.”
More than 150 people are still unaccounted for in Surfside, and authorities and loved ones fear the toll will go much higher.
Scores of rescue workers remained on the massive pile of rubble, searching for survivors but so far finding only bodies and human remains.
In a meeting with families on Saturday evening, people moaned and wept as Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah explained why he could not answer their repeated questions about how many victims they had found.
“It’s not necessarily that we’re finding victims, OK? We’re finding human remains,” Jadallah said, according to the video posted on Instagram.
He noted the pancake collapse of the 12-story building, which had crumbled into a rubble pile that could be measured in feet. Those conditions have frustrated crews looking for survivors, he said.
Every time crews find remains, they clean the area and remove the remains. They work with a rabbi to ensure any religious rituals are done properly, Jadallah said.
“So the question is, is why is things taking so long?” he said, “What we’re doing is making sure that everything is followed to a ‘T'.”
If crews find any “artefacts", such as documents, pictures or money, they turn them over to police, officials said.
Authorities said their efforts are still a search-and-rescue operation. Alan Cominsky, chief of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department, said they are holding out hope of finding someone alive, but they must be slow and methodical.
“The debris field is scattered throughout, and it’s compact, extremely compact,” he said.
Debris must be stabilised and shored up as they go.
Crews work in the rubble at the Champlain Towers South Condo on Jun 27, 2021, in Surfside, Fllorida. (Photo: AP/Gerald Herbert)
“If there is a void space, we want to make sure we’re given every possibility of a survivor. That’s why we can’t just go in and move things erratically, because that’s going to have the worst outcome possible,” he said.
In meetings with authorities, family members repeatedly pushed rescuers to do more. One asked why they could not surgically remove the largest pieces of cement with cranes, to try to uncover bigger voids where survivors might be found.
“There’s not giant pieces that we can easily surgically remove," replied Maggie Castro, of the fire rescue agency, who described herself as “one of the people out there attempting to find your family members.”
“They’re not big pieces. Pieces are crumbled, and they’re being held together by the rebar that’s part of the construction. So if we try to lift that piece, even as carefully, those pieces that are crumbling can fall off the sides and disturb the pile,” Castro said.
She said they try to cut rebar in strategic places and remove large pieces, but that they have to remove them in a way that nothing will fall onto the pile.
“We are doing layer by layer," Castro said. “It doesn’t stop. It’s all day. All night.”
Rescuers were also using a microwave radar device developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and the Department of Homeland Security that “sees” through up to eight inches of solid concrete, according to Adrian Garulay, CEO of Spec Ops Group, which sells them. The suitcase-sized device can detect human respiration and heartbeats and was being deployed Sunday by a seven-member search-and-rescue team from Mexico’s Jewish community.
But as the work dragged on, family members grew desperate. Some asked to visit the site so they could shout messages to their loved ones, “so they can hear our voices". On Sunday afternoon, relatives were driven to a location next to the site as crews continued their work.
TV cameras showed two buses pull up and groups of relatives step off. They walked to an area near the scene, where officials said they could observe and have a moment of reflection.
A fire in the rubble pile slowed rescue efforts earlier in the weekend, but Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said it was suppressed on Saturday.
Women pray on Jun 26, 2021, during a prayer vigil for the victims and families of the Champlain Towers collapsed building in Surfside, Florida, at the nearby St Joseph Catholic Church in Miami Beach. (Photo: AP/Wilfredo Lee)
She said six to eight teams are actively searching the pile at any given time, with hundreds of team members on standby ready to rotate in. She said teams have worked around the clock since Thursday, and there was no lack of personnel.
Teams are also working with engineers and sonar to make sure the rescuers are safe.
“We need to be sure that the pile does not fall on them. It does not fall on any possible survivors and we are diligently pursuing that as we do our work,” she said.
Crews spent the night digging a trench that stretches 125 feet, 20 feet across and 40 feet deep, which, she said, allowed them to find more bodies and human remains.
Earl Tilton, who runs a search-and-rescue consulting firm in North Carolina, said the rescuers in Miami-Dade County were doing an “outstanding job.” Rushing into the rubble without careful planning and execution would injure or kill rescuers and the people they are trying to save, said Tilton, who runs Lodestar Professional Services in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
“I understand the families’ concerns on this. If it was my family member, I would want everyone in there pulling rubble away as fast as humanly possible,” Tilton said. “But moving the wrong piece of debris at the wrong time could cause it to fall on them and crush them.”
During past urban rescues, rescuers have found survivors as long as a week past the initial catastrophe, Tilton said.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis praised the search teams as being “some of the best in the business".
“I’d hope that none of these things would ever happen anywhere, but if something like this happens, the people you would want are Miami-Dade search and rescue," DeSantis said during a Sunday news conference. "These teams have gone all over the world. These are the people that you want. And they’ve been there within minutes, and it’s been nonstop.”
Authorities also sought to assure family members directly that the rescuers were well qualified, telling them during a Saturday meeting that some rescuers had worked on search-and-rescue operations after the Oklahoma City bombing, at the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks and following the Haiti earthquake.
After remains are found, they are sent to the medical examiner. Authorities are gathering DNA samples from family members to aid in identification. Late Saturday, four of the victims were identified as Stacie Dawn Fang, 54; Antonio Lozano, 83; Gladys Lozano, 79; and Manuel LaFont, 54.
JAKARTA - Thirty doctors have died of Covid-19 so far this month in Indonesia, as the country battles a second wave of infections driven by the Delta variant, triggering renewed calls to impose a nationwide lockdown or risk a dire situation such as that in India.
In a statement on Sunday (June 27), the Indonesian medical doctors' association (IDI) appealed to the government to impose a hard lockdown of at least two weeks, especially in Java, adding that maximum enforcement is required.
Java is the most populous island where the capital Jakarta is located.
Dr Adib Khumaidi, head of IDI's mitigation team, flagged some grim statistics in several epicentres in Java at an online briefing.
He said Kudus, the smallest regency, has recorded 231 doctors currently hospitalised or serving self-quarantine at home. Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Jakarta are also among the regions that have seen high casualty numbers among doctors.
The 30 doctors who died this month included four on Sunday, bringing the total death toll for doctors since the pandemic started to 405, according to IDI.
The country's total number of Covid-19 cases is now 2.12 million, and the total death toll is 57,138.
Dr Adib warned of the possibility of a dire outbreak in Indonesia, such as that in India, citing as reasons the country's overloaded hospitals and a testing rate lower than India's.
"Merely adding (hospital) beds isn't enough. (Adequate) medical human resources is key. The current situation is that a lot of our fellow medical workers are infected, doing self-isolation, hospitalised," Dr Adib said.
He added that a number of hospitals could be considered as having collapsed, warning that if no drastic step is taken, the whole healthcare system could also collapse.
India had its first surge last September when its total number of active cases soared above one million, before going down to around 137,000 in mid-February. The cases then spiked again and reached the peak of around 3.7 million in May as pandemic fatigue set in and people flouted restriction rules.
On Friday, Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin announced that the government will convert more hospital beds to treat Covid-19 patients, and at least two major, newly built government-subsidised housing towers in the capital will be turned into facilities to treat patients with mild symptoms.
On Sunday, calls to impose a large-scale lockdown - rather than the current localised lockdowns - also came from the legislative branch, with Parliament's health committee deputy chairman Charles Honoris issuing a statement telling the government to at least impose a hard lockdown in Java.
Indonesia's epidemiological curve is described as "nearly being a vertical line, resembling that of India's in April", Mr Charles said in a text message to The Straits Times last evening.
Meanwhile, Indonesia on Sunday issued an emergency use approval for the Sinovac vaccine to be administered to people aged between 12 and 18.
