Malaysia arrested three suspected militants believed to have ties with a radical cleric in Indonesia who was charged this week with helping plan terrorist attacks, officials said yesterday.
The two Malaysians and an Indonesian were detained on Wednesday for suspected involvement in activities that could jeopardize national security and for alleged links with foreign militants, national police chief Musa Hassan said in a statement.
Police identified the Malaysians as Sheikh Abdullah Sheikh Junaid, a 70-year-old businessman, and contractor Samsul Hamidi, 34, while the Indonesian was listed as Mustawan Ahbab, a 34-year-old marketing executive. They were arrested separately on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur and in eastern Pahang state.
Authorities were holding them under the Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention without trial.
An official familiar with the arrests said the men were believed to have worked with a terror cell in Indonesia’s Aceh Province that was allegedly set up by prominent radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.
Bashir was arrested in the world’s most populous Muslim nation this week for allegedly setting up the cell and a militant training camp in Aceh that was plotting high-profile assassinations and bloody attacks on foreigners in Jakarta.
Those arrested in Malaysia were trying to help the cell expand in this country, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements on the matter.
Malaysian human rights groups that have long campaigned against the Internal Security Act criticized the arrests, saying the three detainees were at “risk of torture and other ill-treatment.”
Activists said the detainees should either be charged in court or released.
Over the past decade, Malaysian authorities have detained more than 100 Islamic militant suspects without trial. Most were released in stages after officials said they had renounced extremist beliefs.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
RSS