Malaysia detains man for link to KMM

Malaysia detains man for link to KMM

Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia has used a controversial internal security law to detain a businessman and former army captain wanted by the United States over the Sept. 11 aircraft attacks, the New Sunday Times said.

Yazid Sufaat, arrested last month while returning home from Pakistan via neighboring Thailand, will spend two years at the Kamunting detention center in the northern state of Perak under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

The law provides for people to be held without trial.

Police are investigating Yazid, 38, for alleged ties to a local group called Kumpulan Militan Malaysia (KMM), and links to al-Qaeda militants arrested in Singapore in December.

Washington has blamed al-Qaeda, the network of Saudi-born millionaire Osama bin Laden, for the attacks.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also the interior minister, signed Yazid's detention order on Thursday, the paper quoted Police Inspector General Norian Mai as saying.

The U.S. also seeks to extradite Yazid to face charges in Washington in connection with the attacks, it added.

U.S. embassy officials in Kuala Lumpur were not available for comment on Sunday.

Malaysia has vowed to arrest more suspected militants in its crackdown on Islamic groups rather than wait till disaster strikes.

A new arena in the U.S.-led war on terror has opened in Asia with the recent arrests of dozens of suspected militants by Malaysia and Singapore and the arrival of U.S. troops in the Philippines.

Malaysian authorities are holding under the ISA 49 men, some KMM members among them, and police have said they are tracking 200 other suspected militants.

Police say some of the detained men were trained at camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.