Riduan Isamuddin

Riduan Isamuddin (Hambali)
Isamuddin in 2012
BornEncep Nurjaman
(1964-04-04) April 4, 1964 (age 60)[1][2][3]
Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia
ArrestedAugust 11, 2003
Ayutthaya, Thailand
Detained at CIA black sites, Guantanamo
Other name(s) Hambali Nurjaman
ISN10019
Alleged to be
a member of		Al-Qaeda
Jemaah Islamiyah
Charge(s)Charged before a military commission in 2021

Riduan Isamuddin[a], also known by the nom de guerre Hambali (born April 4, 1964), is the former military leader of the Indonesian terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). He is currently in American custody at Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba.[4] He is currently awaiting trial in a military commission.[5][6]

Hambali was often described as "the Osama bin Laden of Southeast Asia". Some media reports describe him as bin Laden's lieutenant for Southeast Asian operations. Other reports describe him as an independent peer. He was highly trusted by al-Qaeda and was the main link between the two organisations. Hambali was a close friend of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who planned Operation Bojinka and the September 11 attacks. Hambali envisioned creating a Muslim state, in the form of an Islamic superpower (a theocracy) across Southeast Asia, with himself as its leader (Caliph). His ambition was to rule Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and parts of the Philippines, Myanmar, and Thailand.[7][8]

He received increasing attention in the aftermath of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing, in which 202 people died.[9] He was eventually apprehended in a joint operation by the CIA and Thai police in 2003. He is currently imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, after three years of CIA custody in a secret location.

  1. ^ "Hambali". globalsecurity.org. Archived from the original on 23 October 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  2. ^ JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment prs.mil
  3. ^ "JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment" (PDF). nyt.com. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  4. ^ Vicini, James (March 11, 2010). "Guantanamo prisoner known as Hambali seeks release". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
  5. ^ Rosenberg, Carol (31 August 2021). "Three Guantánamo Detainees Charged in 2002 Bali Bombing". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Fox, Ben (2021-08-30). "Bali bomb case starts in Guantanamo 18 years after capture". AP NEWS. Retrieved 2022-08-11.
  7. ^ Maria Ressa (August 29, 2002). "The quest for SE Asia's Islamic 'super' state". CNN. Archived from the original on 2008-03-29. Retrieved 2008-03-30. The main financier of the operation is alleged to have been Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, and now purported to be al Qaeda's main operative in Southeast Asia.
  8. ^ "'We will fight until we run out of blood'". The Age. Melbourne. October 15, 2002. Archived from the original on 2008-04-05. Retrieved 2008-03-30. In Malaysia, Bashir began to surround himself with a hard-core of militants. One of these was Hambali, alias Riduan Isamuddin, a 37-year-old Indonesian who fought against the Soviets. Today, he is described by Western sources as the chief operations officer of JI, and is reputedly the mastermind of al Qaeda cells in this part of the world.
  9. ^ "Detainee Biographies" (PDF). Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-09-01.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).