POTA detainee Yazid Sufaat with links to international terrorist organisations, including the branch of al-Qaeda responsible for the 9/11 attacks in the US, could be set free next month upon the expiry of his detention order, the Straits Times reports.

His possible release from the Simpang Renggam prison, where the US-trained biochemist has spent the last two years in detention without trial, has sent alarm bells ringing across the Causeway, not least because the man who once tried to launch bomb attacks on its shores has shown no sign of repentance.

Yazid has been incarcerated three times in 17 years for terrorism, including for working with the Jemaah Islamiah terror network to set off a series of blasts in Singapore – a plot that was foiled in the end by the security forces.

His track record shows him to be an inveterate jihadist who had returned to the terror network each time he was released from jail. He did not only prove immune to de-radicalisation efforts in jail, he was radicalising the other inmates.

Counter-terrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay told The Straits Times that Yazid had the ability to easily recruit and incite people. 

“At Tapah prison, some inmates were radicalised by him, that’s how dangerous he is. Till this day, Yazid remains the most challenging militant for us to rehabilitate,” said Ayob.

Ayob declined to say whether that was sufficient reason to keep the man behind bars.

“The final decision to release him has not been made yet by the Prevention of Terrorism Board, but his detention period will expire this November. Whether or not the detention order will be extended, the decision will be made before the expected date of release,” he said.

One of his recruits, Muhamad Razin Sharhan Mustafa Kamal, told the Kuala Lumpur High Court in 2015 that Yazid had undergone military training in Afghanistan, had met Osama Bin Laden and had taken part in “jihad”.

Razin met Yazid for the first time in 2012 and was detained in Beirut, Lebanon for suspected links with al-Qaeda.

“When Yazid was released in 2008, he thought he would be safe and wouldn’t be arrested again. That’s why he went on to recruit more people, including Razin. But Razin and another man were not recruited to join ISIS, they were roped in to join the anti-Syrian government militant group, Jabhat Al Nusrah, while one more was sent to the Southern Philippines to be a suicide bomber,” Ayob said. 

Yazid, a former army captain, was arrested for the first time in 2002 under the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allowed for indefinite detention without trial. He was released in 2008 after he showed signs of “remorse” and “repentance”.

He was detained for the second time in 2013 for recruiting for the Islamic State. He was sentenced to four years in Perak’s Tapah prison.

Following his release, Yazid was rearrested in December 2017, again for recruiting, this time targeting fellow inmates for al-Qaeda while in jail.

He first came to the attention of counter-terror agencies back in the 1990s, when he attempted to make a bioweapon out of anthrax in Afghanistan. Back in Malaysia, he opened his home to the leaders of al-Qaeda, who met there to plot – successfully, as it turned out –  airplane attacks on the New York Towers in the United States on Septemeber 11, 2001.

A source close to Yazid described the former army captain as “malevolent.” 

“He has four children and they are all accomplished individuals, working as an engineer and a doctor. But he told militants not to work for and earn money from a supposed thaghut (enemy of Islam) government. He also advised against sending children to the university. Then why didn’t he recruit his own kids to be suicide bombers, why didn’t he stop his children from furthering their studies?” the source said. – October 19, 2019.