KL to deport Iqbal to Jakarta

KL to deport Iqbal to Jakarta

MALAYSIA: Malaysian authorities locked up Mohammad Iqbal Rahman as a top leader of an al-Qaeda-linked Muslim extremist group. And, the U.S. government called him the network's "primary recruiter and second in command."

Now -- after 30 months' detention without trial -- Malaysia is preparing to release the Indonesian, giving him one condition: Get out of the country.

Malaysia says Iqbal, once a suspected terrorist from the Jamaah Islamiyah group, is now an "undesirable immigrant" who's being deported to Indonesia, where he's expected to walk free.

Iqbal's case has raised concerns about scores of other militant suspects jailed in Malaysia. It has also drawn criticism over the government's use of a tough security law to detain -- and release -- militant suspects at will, rather than putting them on trial.

Iqbal's wife, Fatimah Zahrah Abdul Aziz, said on Friday that she's bought Iqbal a ticket to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta on Sunday, as officials had told her to do.

Malaysian authorities were expected to escort him to the plane, but not to board with him. -- AP