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Alleged Al-Qaeda Operative
Sufaat Denies Terror Charges
Kazi Mahmood, IOL South East Asia Correspondent
JAKARTA, April 14 (IslamOnline) - Alleged Al-Qaeda operative, Yazid Sufaat, denied terror charges, while he admitted that he met two Arab nationals at his condominium in Kuala Lumpur two years ago, a news report from Malaysiakini.com said on Sunday.
However, Sufaat, high on the FBI list of suspects from South East Asia, who might be members or operatives of the Al-Qaeda, stressed the duo could not be involved in the Sept 11 attacks as they were amputees shopping for prosthetic legs in Malaysia.
The 37-year-old pathologist and former army captain, who is also a businessmen in Malaysia, told this to a three-member review panel at the Kamunting Detention Centre in Perak last Thursday. This was his second hearing, one of his lawyers told IslamOnline.
Sufaat was arrested in December last year following a petition filed by the FBI against a French-Morocan citizen Zacharias Massaoui, who is believed to be the first Al-Qaeda operative charged in court.
In the pettition, Yazid Sufaat’s name was mentioned as a business sponsor of Massaoui, who was entitled to a salary of US2000 for representing the import export company of Sufaat.
Sufaat was arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and is now currently in detention in Kamunting, without trial, for two years.
His lawyer Saiful Izham Ramli said the detainee had presented his defence in a 29-page affidavit to the panel, answering each allegation made against him.
Ramli said the second hearing of Sufaat was not really fair because police refused to provide them with certain “privileged information”.
The U.S. has urged Malaysia for the extradition of Sufaat, considering him a main link to Osama bin Laden in the region. Malaysia has refused to accede to the request arguing that there were no proof yet that Sufaat was engaged in activities linked to the Al-Qaeda.
Malaysian police said it was detaining Sufaat for allegedly attempting to cause trouble on Malaysian territory. Police also linked him to the Malaysian Mujahidin Movement (KMM), which Sufaat denies.
According to information passed to IslamOnline by a lawyer who preferred to remain unnamed, the suspect told the police that he was not involved in the KMM or the Al-Qaeda.
Sufaat was among 23 people rounded up by the police early this year for their alleged involvement in Jemaah Islamiah, said to be a secret cell under the so-called KMM.
The KMM is believed to be part of a regional network to overthrow Southeast Asian governments and set up an Islamic state in their respective countries.
Jemaah Islamiah was also said to have ties with the Osama bin Laden-helmed Al-Qaeda
network, which was blamed for the Sept 11 attacks on the United States.
The police have alleged that Yazid contributed money to Jemaah Islamiah to fund sectarian violence in the Ambon Islands of Indonesia, and against the Philippine army in Mindanao.
A lawyer to Sufaat said the latter never denied assisting Muslim in Ambon or in Mindanao, considering this his duty as a Muslim to help others in need, IslamOnline was told.
He was also alleged to have purchased four tons of ammonium nitrate to be made into bombs in the jihad or holy war against Christians in Ambon.
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