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.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese