Agencies
Kuala Lumpur/Male
Five nationals of the Maldives have been deported from Malaysia including one suspected of involvement in a plot to kill President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom last month, police said
yesterday.
Malaysian federal police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement that the police counter-terrorism division, in “close co-operation” with the Maldives authorities, on Wednesday arrested a 47-year-old male suspect who worked as an investment ambassador for the Maldives.
He was caught in a condominium in Kuala Lumpur together with two men and two women aged between 28 and 38 years old.
“All suspects were arrested under the Immigration Act and deported back to their home country on October 30, 2015 for further action by the local
authorities,” Khalid said.
Yameen escaped death on September 28 when the speedboat carrying him and his wife to the capital Male exploded. His wife and two aides were injured.
The incident was initially thought to have been caused by mechanical failure but later authorities said it was an
assassination attempt.
Vice President Ahmed Adheeb has been arrested for alleged involvement in the explosion.
ANTI-TERROR LAW: The Maldives has passed a law allowing authorities to install cameras in the homes of people they suspect of being Islamic State (IS) sympathisers and arrest them if they try to join the militants overseas.
The anti-terror legislation, signed by President Yameen Abdul Gayoom, follows reports that many IS recruits were coming from the Indian Ocean archipelago of just 350,000 people.
The actual number of Maldivian fighters in the extremist group is unknown, but local newspapers carry frequent reports of Maldivians wounded or killed while fighting in the Middle East.
Home Minister Umar Naseer said the government had details on seven Maldivian IS fighters, while another 10 people were stopped in Sri Lanka and Malaysia on suspicion of trying to get to Syria to join the group. They were not arrested because there was no legal provision, Naseer said. The new law, however, would allow for arrests.
The law defines terrorism broadly, including cases of endangering another person, hijacking a transportation vessel, kidnapping, endangering public safety, vandalism and causing health hazards.
The government can now seek a court order to fit suspected IS sympathisers with electronic monitoring tags, listen to their phone conversations and prevent them from traveling abroad if the trip is deemed suspicious.
The legislation allows the president to declare any group a terrorist organisation. Anyone belonging to such an organisation would then be in danger of being imprisoned for up to 15 years.