Malaysia detains six Indonesian terror suspects

Malaysia detains six Indonesian terror suspects

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia has ordered six Indonesian terror suspects detained for two years after they were captured returning from a training camp in the Philippines, a senior security official said on Sunday.

The suspects are believed to be members of the al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) that carried out the Bali bombings in 2002 which killed more than 200 people, the official said.

They were caught among a group of illegal immigrants trying to enter the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island several weeks ago but their arrest had not been announced, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

They were discovered among a boat load of illegal immigrants arrested while trying to enter Malaysia's state of Sabah near Sandakan, a port on the northeast coast of Borneo, just across the Sulu Sea from the islands of the southern Philippines.

It is a favored route for militants. There is large flow of illegal migrants through Borneo as the island is shared between Indonesia, Malaysia and the tiny sultanate of Brunei, and the coastline and interior are hard to patrol.

The source said one of the men known as "Denny" was a trainer at a camp hosted by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the restive southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

Philippines intelligence officials wish to question "Denny" and he may be sent back, though for now all six men were being held in Kamunting detention camp in northern Malaysia, the source said.

They have been served with two year detention orders under Malaysia's Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows indefinite detention without trial.

Some 90 alleged militants, many of them suspected JI members, are already held in Malaysia and human rights groups regularly press the government to bring them to trial or set them free.