Malaysia detains 15 suspected militants

Teen, housewife accused of plotting ‘lone wolf’ attacks

KUALA LUMPUR, June 2, (Agencies): Malaysia has detained 15 suspected Islamist militants including a teenager and a housewife accused of plotting separate “lone wolf” attacks on places of worship around the capital, Kuala Lumpur, police said on Friday.

Police rounded up the 15, including nine foreigners, in several security operations between March 27 and May 9, Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement.

They included a 17-year-old secondary school student suspected of being a member of Islamic State, who had allegedly planned “lone wolf” attacks on churches, entertainment centers and Hindu temples around Kuala Lumpur.

The student had made six petrol bombs and tested one of them, Mohamad Fuzi said.

“The suspect had surveyed and filmed the target locations, as well as recorded a video warning of the impending attacks,” he said, adding that the video was uploaded to four Islamic State-linked mobile chatrooms shortly before the suspect was arrested.

Another detained suspect was a 51-year-old housewife who was arrested on May 9, the day Malaysia held a general

The case has major implications for press freedom in the South Pacific nation, where many media outlets kowtow to the government.

Lawyers on Friday were served with the appeal against Hank Arts, the publisher of the The Fiji Times, and opinion writer Josaia Waqabaca. election, police said.

The woman was suspected of planning to drive a car into non-Muslim voters at a polling center on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

“The suspect had also planned to crash into non-Muslim houses of worship using a car fitted with a gas tank to be used as an explosive,” Mohamad Fuzi said.

Among the others detained was a Bangladeshi restaurant owner suspected of smuggling arms to foreign militants, as well as six Philippine nationals aiming to join Islamic State-linked gunmen who occupied a Philippine town last year.

A North African married couple, wanted for being Islamic State members in their home country, was detained before being deported on April 14, Mohamad Fuzi said. He did not give their nationality.

Muslim-majority, diverse Malaysia is on alert for violence, and authorities have arrested hundreds of people over the past few years for suspected links to militants, but it has never suffered a major militant attack.

Malaysia has dropped its request before the UN’s top court to overturn its ruling in a decades-old dispute with Singapore over a tiny but strategic island, the

Prosecutors also appealed a not guilty verdict found in favor of Fiji Times Limited, but didn’t appeal the acquittal of two other newspaper executives.

A high court judge last month ruled that prosecutors failed to prove an opinion piece written by Waqabaca promoted feelings of ill-will and hostility between Muslims and court announced Friday.

Malaysia in a letter on Monday “notified the Court that the parties had agreed to discontinue the proceedings in the aforementioned case,” the International Court of Justice announced.

“Consequently the court made an order recording the discontinuance following the agreement of the parties... of the proceedings instituted by Malaysia against Singapore and directing the removal of the case from the Court’s list,” it said in a statement.

Two weeks of hearings, scheduled to start on June 11 have therefore been cancelled, the Hague-based ICJ added.

Malaysia lodged the case in February 2017, calling for the court to overturn its 2008 ruling granting its neighbour sovereignty over the disputed rocky outcrop.

Kuala Lumpur then maintained new documents had been discovered in British archives backing its territorial claim to the islet.

Malaysia calls the island Pulau Batu Puteh, while Singapore dubs it Pedra Branca (white rock).

The island is in a strategically important position, 7.7 nautical miles (14 kms) off Johor on the eastern approach to the Singapore Strait from the South China Sea.

non-Muslims.

The piece ran in a small indigenouslanguage newspaper published by The Fiji Times.

Nick Barnes, the lawyer for Arts, said he would be fighting the appeal, which he didn’t think would be heard until next year at the earliest. (AP)