US torture was a key issue in the plea deal for the Bali bombings

Prosecutors told relatives of the victims of the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, that the U.S. government had reached a plea deal with two Malaysian prisoners in an effort to untangle the legacy of torture from the eventual trial of the prisoner they accuse of masterminding to be of the All. Qaeda-linked attacks.

The two Malaysians gave secret testimony at the time of their conviction last month. Depending on what they said, their testimony could be used against the man accused of being the mastermind, an Indonesian prisoner known as Hambali, in an effort to avoid lengthy court battles over whether earlier evidence was obtained voluntarily .

The legacy of torture has complicated prosecutors' efforts to hold trials in the better-known cases of September 11 and the USS Cole bombing at Guantanamo.

Like the terrorism suspects in those cases, the Bali bombing suspects were held naked in dungeon-like conditions, deprived of sleep by painful shackles and subjected to a technique similar to waterboarding during their detention from 2003 to 2006 in CIA prisons. They were held in solitary confinement. It's all been fodder for lawyers trying to discredit evidence that prosecutors hope to use in war crimes trials.

The settlement was reached last month after two weeks of slow proceedings at Guantanamo Bay. Prosecutors brought family members from Europe and the United States to testify of their grief. A military jury subsequently sentenced the two defendants, Mohammed Farik Bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, to an additional 23 years in prison.

But separately, the military judge, Col. Wesley A. Braun, announced a two-step sentence reduction and a recommendation for repatriation that could ultimately mean they return home this year.

The agreement surprised and angered some friends and family of the 202 people killed in the Oct. 12, 2002, attack.

Jan Iaczynski from Melbourne, Australia, was in a pub in Bali before the explosions, but lost five friends that night. He followed the events at Guantánamo through social media and transcripts sometimes posted by the Pentagon.

Mr. Iaczynski called the sentencing hearing “a sham trial” that offered less transparency than early trials of perpetrators in Southeast Asia, some of whom have long since been convicted and executed.

But families brought to the base as witnesses said prosecutors had prepared them for disappointment.

Matthew Arnold of Birmingham, England, said prosecutors said the plea deal was necessary “to pursue a viable prosecution against Hambali.” Mr Arnold's brother Timothy was killed in the bombing while visiting Bali for a rugby tournament.

He described the strategy as conveyed by the prosecutor as essentially using the Malaysians as 'sacrificial lambs for the bigger fish': Mr Hambali.

Col. George C. Kraehe, a lead prosecutor, “told us he was disappointed,” said Mary Panagoulas, whose 27-year-old brother, Dimitri, a Greek-Swedish citizen, was killed in Bali. But the prosecutor also advised that testimony from the Malaysians in the plea deal would “help the Hambali case.” Colonel Kraehe declined to comment.

Susanna Miller, whose brother Dan, a British citizen, was killed, said prosecutors told relatives “as a kindness” about the deals before a judge made them public. She described the agreement as necessary to “cleanse” the case of evidence obtained through torture.

The three men have been held by the United States since they were captured in Thailand in the summer of 2003. But the U.S. government has waited until 2021 to bring them to trial, and prosecutors have struggled to prepare evidence for trial.

A month after Mr. Hambali was captured, an American interrogator told him, according to a CIA cable, that he would “never go to court because 'we can never let the world know what I did to you.'”

Mr. Hambali's lawyer, James R. Hodes, declined to discuss what was done to his client but called the prosecutor's approach ridiculous. “Torture can never be erased,” Mr Hodes said. “The idea that an explanation could somehow clear evidence obtained through torture is contrary to our democratic foundations and the rule of law.”

Before the Malaysians gave evidence last month, the judge dismissed charges accusing them of conspiring with Mr Hambali in other deadly plots, making it unclear how their testimony could be useful.

In their guilty pleas, the Malaysians said they had no personal knowledge of any role Mr Hambali might have played in the Bali bombings. “I didn't know anything about the Bali bombing until it happened,” Mr Bin Amin told the jury. The prosecutors did not confront him about this.

Both men said they learned from news articles that Mr. Hambali, whose full name is Encep Nurjaman, was wanted as the suspected mastermind. They described their part in the conspiracy as a way to help him evade capture and move money that benefited other perpetrators.

The judge did not set a trial date as the government continues to prepare secret evidence for the court to review.

Prosecutors missed so many deadlines to share evidence with the court and defense teams that a judge did so late last year started issuing criminal credits against any possible conviction. It is not known how that credit would be applied to Mr. Hambali if he were sentenced to life in prison, the maximum sentence in his case.

For the families who testified, the focus is now on the Hambali trial. Prosecutors have said the case won't begin until next year.

Mrs. Miller plans to bring her mother from England to testify. Ms. Panagoulas wants her parents to travel to Guantanamo from their home in Athens.

She described complicated views on the government's use of torture. “Some families of victims were comforted to know they were being tortured, and not only our families were being tortured,” she said, describing the horrific death of her brother Dimitri.

The bombing burned at least 85 percent of his body. He was transported a thousand miles from Bali to Darwin, Australia, for care, but died two days after the attack.