Australian newspaper The Age reported that a possible explanation for the delay is that Pentagon’s prosecutors must work with US intelligence agencies to decide what evidence must be withheld from the trial, to be held at the hybrid federal military court at the Guantanamo prison in Cuba.

Lead prosecutor George Kraehe said the government should be able to present all evidence and substitutions for the judge’s review by Jan 31 but said March 2025 was the earliest practical date to start a trial.

Mohammed Nazir Lep is facing a joint trial with fellow Malaysian Mohammed Farik Amin and Indonesian Encep Nurjaman, also known as Hambali, on charges such as murder, terrorism and conspiracy in the bombings.

The three suspects face eight joint charges, including seven related to the twin bombings that killed 202 people in Bali in October 2002, and a bombing at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta in August 2003.

They were arrested in Thailand in 2003 and put under solitary confinement in secret CIA-operated black sites before being moved to Guantanamo Bay in 2006.

Brian Bouffard, Nazir’s lead counsel, previously told FMT that two weeks had been set aside for the hearing from April 24, after the dates were postponed for 20 months following objections about the quality of Malay translators.

The Age reported that defence lawyers protested Kraehe’s timeline as too long for the three men, going on to ask the judge to require prosecutors to explain ongoing negotiations with the CIA and other intelligence agencies about the evidence.

“These gentlemen have been incarcerated for 20 years, judge, and these men are entitled to a trial,” said James Hodes, Hambali’s lawyer.

Hodes complained that 20 months after the men were first brought to court, prosecutors have yet to share with them statements the defendants made while in US custody. Hodes said that in federal court, this is routinely done the day a defendant is charged.