Malaysia has released three alleged members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group after they were held for more than five years without trial, a rights group said yesterday.
“The government has freed three alleged JI members from detention,” said Nalini Elunalai, coordinator for the Suaram rights group.
Home ministry officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Elunalai said businessmen Suhaimi Mokhtar and Mohammad Khider Kadran and electrician Zaini Zakaria, held under Malaysia’s tough Internal Security Act (ISA), were freed from the northern Kamunting detention center on Friday.
“We want the government to explain why they have detained these individuals for more than five years and produce whatever evidence they had in order to detain them without trial,” she said. “Malaysians also want to know why the three, if they are considered dangerous by the government, have been released now and what is it that makes them no longer a threat to society?”
Elunalai said that Suaram and several other rights groups would organize a campaign next month against the security law and calling for the closure of Kamunting, in line with US moves to shut its Guantanamo Bay detention center.
Weekend newspaper reports said the three released men would have to check in daily at a police station near their homes and would need written approval from the authorities to leave the states where they live.
JI is believed to have links to al-Qaeda and has been blamed for major attacks including the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people.
The home ministry, as of last December, said it was holding 46 people under the ISA, with the majority of detainees belonging to militant groups like the JI and Darul Islam movement.
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