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BENARNEWS-Kuala Lumpur High Court on Friday sentenced a 28-year-old Malaysian man to seven years in jail after he pleaded guilty to attempting to join the militant group Islamic State (IS) in Syria.
Azmi Mohd Asari traveled to Turkey from Kuala Lumpur International Airport on July 19, 2015. Turkish officials captured him as he attempted to enter Syria near Gaziantep, Turkey, and returned him to Malaysia.
After conducting their own investigation, Malaysian authorities arrested Azmi at a car repair shop in Tanjung Karang, Selangor, in May 2016.
Azmi, who could have faced 15 years in prison, admitted to family and friends that he was trying to go to Syria to join IS, according to court documents.
After he pleaded guilty Friday, Judge Azman Abdullah ordered the term of his jail sentence to begin May 18, the day he was taken into Malaysian custody.
Azman said Malaysians should value the peacefulness of the country because it is not something everyone enjoys.
"Those who live in conflict and turbulent countries would be rushing to come to Malaysia if they were given the opportunity to stay here, they would jump at the opportunity," he said while rendering his judgment.
Azman reminded Azmi to be grateful that his plan to go to Syria failed because he has a family, including a wife whom he married two months before he was arrested.
"This sentence is not only to punish, but also as a reminder and to instill fear in the public so they will not arbitrarily sympathize with or support terrorist groups," the judge said.
Azmi bowed his head while family members sobbed in the public gallery as his prison sentence was announced.
Azmi's lawyer Farida Mohammad had urged the judge to impose a light sentence on the accused because it was his first offense and, according to her, he had repented.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Izhanudin Alias asked the judge for a sentence that would serve as a deterrent to those who contemplate supporting terrorist activities.
As of November, police reported they had arrested more than 260 individuals involved in militant activities including more than 70 who have been charged in court.
Recent statistics show that 56 Malaysians were in Syria, including 12 women and 17 boys and girls.
Many of those arrested by Malaysian authorities have been linked to Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, a Malaysian who left for Syria with his wife in January 2015 and has been an active as an IS recruiter since then.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian police on Saturday arrested political cartoonist Zunar for the second time in a month and seized more than 1,000 of his books worth an estimated $10,000, he said in a statement.
Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, whose pen name is Zunar, was arrested under a clause of the penal code concerning "activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy" and questioned for six hours, then released on bail and told to report back to the police station in Dang Wangi, Kuala Lumpur on Dec. 30, the statement said.
The arrest took place during a fundraiser Zunar was holding in Selangor "to recover the loss that I had with my previous exhibition where twenty (20) of my paintings were confiscated by the police," the statement said.
Zunar, a BenarNews contributor, was arrested Nov. 25 shortly after opening an exhibit of his cartoons in George Town, Penang, and released the following day after a court rejected a police application to hold him for four days for questioning under Malaysia's Sedition Act.
The exhibit had been mounted for seven days in September in Petaling Jaya, Selangor without incident.
The winner of the 2016 Cartooning for Peace Award is also facing nine sedition charges for allegedly insulting the judiciary in tweets made regarding the conviction of former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in a sodomy case in February 2015.
He is known for biting cartoons that lampoon the Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and Prime Minister Najib Razak, and highlight themes such as corruption.
He has been jailed twice – for two days in September 2010 and for three days in February 2015. Five of his books have been banned and his office in Kuala Lumpur has been raided. Printers have been warned to not publish any of his cartoon books.
Earlier this month Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said Zunar should refrain from drawing cartoons that "insult people."
"He can draw McDonalds or Donald Duck, anything, no one will care, but don't insult people," he was quoted as saying in the Sun Daily, a Malaysian newspaper.
The police chief claimed that Zunar's work inspired hatred toward the country's leaders and said it was "not Malaysian culture to draw people in that manner," the paper said.


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BENARNEWS- Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with 10 foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Monday in Yangon to brief them on the situation in troubled Rakhine state where controversial security operations have been in place since deadly attacks on border guard posts in early October.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who also serves as state counselor and foreign affairs minister, informed the ASEAN ministers about the government's efforts to provide assistance to both the Rohingya Muslim community and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist communities affected by violence in the wake of the attacks, according to a statement issued by the State Counselor's Office.
"The retreat was initiated by the Government of Myanmar with the aim of apprising fellow members of the ASEAN family of Myanmar's efforts in ensuring peace, security, and development in the Rakhine state," the statement said. "It was also intended to strengthen ASEAN unity and solidarity."
Following the security crackdown to find attackers believed to be Rohingya militants, reports about Myanmar army soldiers committing extrajudicial killings, torturing villagers, raping women and burning down homes in Rohingya communities have sparked protests by Muslims in Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, as well as accusations of human rights abuses and genocide by international organizations, Western governments, and the United Nations.
The government has denied the allegations, Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews, reported.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who called for the meeting, said the government is committed to resolving the Rakhine crisis, but needs time, and stressed the importance of clearing up differences among ASEAN members through friendly consultations, the statement said.
Most urgent matter
Foreign Minister Anifah Aman of Malaysia, whose leaders have been critical of Myanmar's handling of the Rakhine dispute, called on the regional bloc to coordinate humanitarian efforts to assist people uprooted by violence in Rakhine state as well as establish an independent body to probe allegations of human rights abuses in the area.
"[T]he most urgent matter is the humanitarian conditions of the people in the affected areas," he said.
"Like others, we call for unimpeded humanitarian access to the affected areas," he said, in a reference to security forces barring international humanitarian groups from entering northern Rakhine to deliver aid.
"We further propose that ASEAN coordinates the humanitarian assistance to Rakhine state, as we did during Cyclone Nargis in 2008,"Anifah said, referring to Myanmar's worst natural disaster in its recorded history.
Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country in Southeast Asia, irked officials in Myanmar after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak participated in a protest rally in Kuala Lumpur on Dec. 4 during which he called on the United Nations to end "ethnic cleansing" targeting Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state.
Anifah proposed that ASEAN establish its own independent group of experts or eminent persons to investigate and verify the situation in Rakhine and provide recommendations to the foreign ministers about how the situation should be dealt with.
He also called on Myanmar to uphold the rights of all people living with the boundaries of the state in the western part of the country.
"[M]yanmar must take steps to build confidence and reassurance among the local population, and to also protect all residents regardless of their ethnicity, religious beliefs, or status," Anifah said. "Although Myanmar may not recognize the Rohingya as its citizens, we must not forget that they too deserve basic human rights."
An inclusive approach
Retno L.P. Marsudi, minister of foreign affairs of Muslim-majority Indonesia, echoed the sentiments of her Malaysian counterpart.
"Human rights protection and respect for all communities, including Muslim communities in Rakhine state, must be done by using an inclusive approach," she said at the meeting.
"I urge all members of ASEAN to continue to constructively support and assist Myanmar in addressing the complex situation in Rakhine state," said Retno who will travel to Bangladesh for bilateral talks about the Rohingya issue on Tuesday.
The meeting of the ASEAN foreign ministers came just days after international rights group Amnesty International released a report on the Rakhine crisis about what it calls the persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar, the neglect they face in Bangladesh, and abuses that may constitute "crimes against humanity."
In the Dec. 16 report titled "We Are at a Breaking Point," Amnesty International says it has found that government security forces did commit atrocities against Rohingya villagers in Rakhine based mostly on phone interviews from outside the country with 55 victims, eyewitnesses, human rights monitors, humanitarian workers, journalists and Rohingya leaders in October, November and December.
The violence in northern Rakhine state has forced more than 27,000 Rohingya to flee to southeastern Bangladesh since early October.
Border guards report that Bangladeshi authorities turned back 306 boats carrying Rohingya across the Naaf River, which separates the two countries, between early October and Dec. 15.
On Monday, border guard officials told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, that they had turned back another 40 Rohingya as they tried to cross the border at Ukhia and Teknaf, two subdistricts in southeastern Cox's Bazar district.
Muzliza Mustafa in Kuala Lumpur, Tia Asmara in Jakarta and Kamran Reza Chowdhury in Dhaka contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Local human rights groups hailed Tuesday's acquittal by a Malaysian court of a former student activist on sedition charges as a victory for free speech, in the first decision since the rules for such cases changed last month.
The acquittal of Muhammad Safwan Anang came barely a month after the country's Court of Appeal ruled that the prosecution must prove intent when filing charges in sedition cases. Prior to that, prosecutors had only to prove that an offending statement was made.
On Tuesday, a three-judge Court of Appeal panel ruled that a statement made by Safwan in 2013, when he called for the public to remove Malaysia's government from office through street protests, was not seditious speech.
Judges Prasad Sandosham Abraham, Mohtarudin Baki and Zakaria Sam, agreed unanimously that the prosecution had failed to prove the case against the 26-year-old former Universiti Malaya student.
"The court must scrutinize and independently evaluate the statement to see whether the language used comes within the bounds of sedition or free speech.
"Failure to do so by the court, in our view, is a serious misdirection in law which renders the conviction unsafe," Prasad said in delivering the verdict that overturned previous rulings.
On Sept. 5, 2014, Safwan was sentenced to 10 months in jail and fined 5,000 ringgit (U.S. $1,115) after the Sessions Court found him guilty over the speech delivered during a forum on May 13, 2013.
Safwan spoke soon after Malaysia's 13th general election, uttering the words "we cannot trust a government which wins by misappropriation."
Four other activists charged under the same act at the same forum are awaiting appeals and a fifth activist is still waiting for his trial to start.
Previously, Safwan, a former chairman of student group Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia, appealed his conviction to the High Court and succeeded in having his sentence reduced to only the 5,000 ringgit fine. The prosecution appealed, seeking a heavier sentence.
Ruling on sedition
On Nov. 25, the Court of Appeal ruled that Section 3(3) of the Sedition Act, which allows for conviction once it is proved that the defendant made a seditious statement, was unconstitutional. The court ruled that intent must be proved in such cases.
Following the ruling, Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali said the government would appeal.
Asked about Safwan's acquittal, Apandi told BenarNews on Tuesday, "Sorry, I am on a vacation right now and not in the country."
The Sedition Act, enacted by British colonial rulers in 1948 to combat communists, was amended by the Malaysian government following race riots in 1969. The law defines "sedition" broadly and places limits on free speech, particularly over sensitive political issues, according to a report by Center of Independent Journalism Malaysia.
'A welcome break'
Human rights groups have criticized the Malaysian government for using the Sedition Act to go after and silence critics of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who have called for him to resign over a financial scandal linked to state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Safwan hailed his acquittal as a "positive signal to the people's freedom of speech" and said citizens had every right to criticize the government over alleged misconduct.
"My criticism in the speech was against the weaknesses found in the last general election's system, as well as the abuse of government machinery to campaign for the elections. I also called for the Election Commission to act more fairly.
"This verdict gives us the strength to continue campaigning to drop every charge under the Sedition Act, as they are clearly driven by selective prosecution. We should also continue fighting for the abolishment of the Sedition Act itself," he told BenarNews.
Eric Paulsen, executive director for local NGO Lawyers for Liberty, who was in court as a spectator, called the acquittal an excellent verdict, but cautioned that it "does not mean the fight against the archaic and irrelevant act was over."
Amnesty International Malaysia Executive Director Shamini Darshni lauded the acquittal as "a step in the right direction" and said Safwan should never have been charged.
"The decision of the Court of Appeal is a welcome break from the worrying trend of the Malaysian authorities to criminalize the work of activists, by subjecting them to arrests, detention and imprisonment," Shamini said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia has arrested four foreigners and three citizens since early November for suspected links to terrorist groups including Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda, the nation's police chief announced Tuesday.
Among the foreign suspects, one allegedly was involved in gathering information about an international school in Kuala Lumpur and another tried to smuggle weapons to Poso, in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province, and also attempted to infiltrate Myanmar to launch attacks there, Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement.
A third man, who is Malaysian, allegedly posted at least one message on social media in which he threatened to bomb entertainment spots in Kuala Lumpur.
The most recent arrest was made by the police's counter-terrorist special branch on Dec. 16, following raids in the states of Selangor, Malacca, Johor and the eastern state of Sabah on Borneo island, he said.
Police did not identify the suspects, but Khalid said all were investigated under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012, which allows detention without trial for up to 28 days.
Three foreign men between the ages of 20 and 30 were arrested on Nov. 3 and have since been deported to their home countries, he said. Another foreigner, age 26, was arrested on Dec 8. The police chief did not disclose the nationalities of the four suspects.
The first two were students at Al-Madinah International University in Shah Alam, Selangor, according to Khalid.
"The first suspect has been previously investigated by foreign authorities for alleged involvement in the Daesh terror group," Khalid said, using another name for IS. "During September 2016, he was believed to be involved in obtaining security information of an international school in Kuala Lumpur."
Khalid said the second foreign suspect conspired with his university colleague. The third suspect, also taken into custody on Nov. 3, had been arrested by authorities in the Middle East on charges linked to his alleged involvement with al-Qaeda.
Khalid said the fourth foreigner, who was arrested in December, worked at a factory in the southern state of Johor and allegedly tried to smuggle weapons to Poso and enter Myanmar illicitly.
Authorities: 260 involved in militant activities
As of November, Malaysian police reported that they had arrested more than 260 people allegedly involved in militant activities, including more than 70 who have been charged in court. Among those detained were members of the Malaysian army and police, imams from mosques, university professors and government officials.
Recent statistics provided by the police show that 56 Malaysians were in Syria, including 12 women and 17 boys and girls. Twenty-seven Malaysians have been killed in Syria and Iraq and eight have returned home.
Many of those arrested by Malaysian authorities have been linked to Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, a Malaysian who left for Syria with his wife in January 2015 and has been an active as recruiter for IS since then.
IED maker
Describing the Malaysian suspects, Khalid said two are 24 years old and the third is 36.
One of the 24-year-olds, identified as self-employed, was arrested in Malacca on Nov. 26 and is believed to be an IS member who allegedly received instructions from Wanndy to carry out attacks on entertainment outlets in Malacca and Kuala Lumpur.
"The suspect has also been taught to make improvised explosive devices (IED) from another Malaysian militant in Syria, Muhamad Nasrullah Abd Latif or Abu Gomes," Khalid said.
The other 24-year-old, a lorry driver, was arrested on Dec. 16 after allegedly threatening on his Facebook page to launch bomb attacks on entertainment outlets in Kuala Lumpur.
The 36-year-old, who worked in a furniture factory in Sabah, was captured in the state's capital of Kota Kinabalu on Nov. 16 as he allegedly tried to join an IS cell in Sabah, according to Khalid.
In June, two men allegedly associated with Wanndy and IS launched a grenade attack that injured eight people at a nightclub in Puchong, near Kuala Lumpur, which was the first terrorist act claimed by Islamic State on Malaysian soil. Both suspects were arrested and are awaiting trial in January.


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BENARNEWS- Cameroon says it has intercepted more than 670 kilograms of African pangolin that authorities say were being smuggled from the Central African country to Malaysia.
The pangolin is the world's most trafficked mammal and conservationist groups are calling for severe sanctions on the three traffickers who have been arrested.
Cameroon customs Lt. Wara Wara Francois Noel of the Yaounde-Nsimalen international airport told Voice of America (VOA), a sister entity of BenarNews, that the recovered pangolin scales were found in several meat packets. He said the three smugglers had bribed their way into the airport, but authorities were mobilized after getting a tip from wildlife officials.
He says two weeks after the tip, his staff finally intercepted the truck loaded with pangolins at the plane bound for Malaysia. He says although it was the first large-scale interception of the protected mammal at the Yaounde-Nsimalen international airport, authorities said they have been regularly seizing three to five kilos of scales and meat of pangolins hidden in little containers.
Six months ago, Hong Kong authorities announced a massive seizure of four tons of pangolin scales that had arrived from Cameroon and were being smuggled to Asian countries.
Among the organizations assisting officials in this ongoing case is the local NGO, the Last Great Ape Association, or LAGA. Its deputy director, Eric Kaba Tah, says traffickers have often able to buy their way around sanctions when caught in Cameroon.
"According to the 1994 wildlife law, anybody arrested or found in possession of parts or whole of a protected wildlife species is presumed to have captured or killed that animal and is liable to a prison term of one to three years and or a 10 million CFA [U.S. $20,000] maximum fine," said Tah. "If the law were applied as it was supposed to be applied, we would have been seeing many wildlife criminals behind the bars."
Some cultures consider pangolin meat a delicacy and use pangolin scales in traditional medicine. High demand has fueled an international criminal trade that has severely threatened the survival of the world's eight pangolin species.
It is estimated that more than a million pangolins have been snatched from the wild in the past decade.
In September, the world's largest wildlife protection convention, known as CITES, recommended a complete ban on international commercial trade.


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BENARNEWS- A Syria-based Malaysian bomb-maker has been sharing his knowledge in explosives with Islamic State recruits for more than two years and has instructed militants to carry out attacks in his home country, Malaysia's top anti-terror cop alleged in an interview.
IS member Muhamad Nasrullah Abd Latif (also known as Abu Gomes) has been recruiting his countrymen to join the extremist group in the Middle East and has been teaching recruits to build bombs since he left Malaysia, police counter-terrorist special branch chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay told The Star newspaper in a report published Thursday.
Ayob's comments followed the announcement by police on Tuesday of the arrests in Malaysia of seven men with alleged links to IS and other militant organizations, who were taken into custody in raids in different states between Nov. 3 and Dec. 16.
Among the seven was a 24-year-old self-employed man, arrested in Malacca on Nov. 26 and believed to be an IS member who was taught to build home-made bombs by Abu Gomes, who is from the northern Malaysian state of Perak and has been in Syria for more than two years.
"We can confirm that he [Abu Gomes] often shares his knowledge in bomb making and has issued orders to IS cells in Malaysia to launch attacks," Ayob said, according to The Star.
The unidentified suspect had also received instructions from Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, a Malaysian who left for Syria with his wife in January 2015 and has been recruiting for IS as well, Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said in announcing the arrests.
Malaysian police investigators are identifying Abu Gomes' recruits, Ayob said, adding that he is not as influential as Wanndy.
In June, two men allegedly associated with Wanndy and IS launched a grenade attack that injured eight people at a nightclub in Puchong, near Kuala Lumpur – the first terrorist act claimed by Islamic State on Malaysian soil. Both suspects were arrested and are awaiting trial in January.
IS operative
Khalid said a different foreign suspect who worked at a factory in the southern state of Johor was arrested earlier in December after allegedly trying to smuggle weapons to Poso, Indonesia, and enter Myanmar illicitly.
Ayob told The Star that the suspect, who also took orders from Wanndy, planned to use Malaysia as a transit point for smuggling weapons to militants in Poso.
"He entered the country legally a year ago but overstayed," Ayob said. "He used his job as a factory worker in Johor Baru as a cover to carry out his work as an IS operative."
'The safety of the people is our top priority'
As of November, Malaysian police had arrested more than 260 people allegedly involved in militant activities, including more than 70 who have been charged in court. Recent statistics show that 56 Malaysians were in Syria, including 12 women and 17 boys and girls. Twenty-seven Malaysians have been killed in Syria and Iraq and eight have returned home.
Among others whose arrests were announced this week were two students at Al-Madinah International University in Shah Alam, Selangor, according to Khalid.
"The first suspect has been previously investigated by foreign authorities for alleged involvement in the Daesh terror group," Khalid said, using another name for IS. "During September 2016, he was believed to be involved in obtaining security information [about] an international school in Kuala Lumpur."
Khalid said the second foreign suspect conspired with his university colleague. Both men, who were arrested Nov. 3, have since been deported to their home countries.
On Thursday, officials at Al-Madinah University issued a statement about the arrests of the students. The two suspects are not representative of the campus, which is "not a hub of terrorist activity deployment," the university said.
In the interview Ayob also told Malaysians not to panic over potential terror attacks during the Christmas and New Year holidays, The Star reported.
"People should carry out their routines and celebrate during this holiday season," he said. "We are always on our guard and the safety of the people is our top priority."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian satirical cartoonist Zunar said he would not have to report to a police station in the Kuala Lumpur area for questioning on Friday, as he had expected, because officials postponed the meeting indefinitely without explanation.
Zunar, a BenarNews contributor who has been arrested twice since late November over allegations of sedition and "activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy" for cartoons critical of Malaysia's government and judiciary, said he still expected to be summoned later.
"My lawyer has contacted the Dang Wangi district police station this afternoon and was told that I did not need to report to the police station tomorrow as requested two weeks ago," Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, told BenarNews by phone on Thursday.
"My lawyer was informed that the police will call and give a new date, and also did not give the reason why I should not be present at IPD [District Police Headquarters] tomorrow," Zunar added.
Police and government officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The cartoonist was last arrested while appearing at a charity event, "Tea With Zunar," at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall on Dec. 17.
Police seized more than 1,000 copies of his cartoon books, sketches and cartoon T-shirts, which he valued at around 40,000 ringgit [U.S. $10,000].
He was arrested then along with four other people and taken to the Dang Wangi police station as part of an investigation under Section 124 of Malaysia's Penal Code, which covers activities deemed as detrimental to democracy. He was released six hours later.
On Nov. 26, Zunar was arrested under the Sedition Act and his artwork that was on display at an exhibit in George Town, Penang state, was also confiscated by the authorities. He was released the following day.
When contacted Thursday, Zunar said his legal team was gathering information to enable him to take legal action against the government and police in order to retrieve all copies of his confiscated works.
The winner of the 2016 Cartooning for Peace Award has been barred from leaving Malaysia since June. He is also facing nine sedition charges for allegedly insulting the judiciary in tweets made regarding the conviction of former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in a sodomy case in February 2015. If convicted on all nine charges he could be sentenced to 43 years in jail.
International rights and free speech advocacy groups have called for the authorities to drop all charges against the cartoonist, saying the government was going after him for criticizing it in his cartoons.
On Tuesday, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) issued a statement in which it noted that Zunar had been told to report for interrogation by police on Friday, following his Dec. 17 arrest.
"We call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all charges against this cartoonist and we urge the Malaysian authorities to stop using the Sedition Act to intimidate and threaten journalists," RSF editor-in-chief Virginie Dangles said.


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BENARNEWS- A "food flotilla" that a Malaysian Muslim organization plans to send to restive northern Rakhine state to help ethnic Rohingya affected by communal violence is "an insult," Myanmar's home affairs minister said Friday.
Lt. Gen. Kyaw Swe, who served as minister of border affairs under the previous government, made the comment to reporters after a meeting of Myanmar's central anti-human trafficking organization about the boats laden with 200 metric tons of rice, medical aid, and essential supplies for Rohingya Muslim communities, which are scheduled to depart Malaysia on Jan. 10.
"It is impossible to accept it because it doesn't make any sense," he said. "It must be done as a government-to-government matter. They can't go straight to Rakhine state."
"It shouldn't be accepted, and we won't accept it," he said. "If they want to do it, then they have to do it through the foreign affairs ministry and must inform the central government. We can't accept it if they just do it with the Rakhine state government."
"It is an insult," he said. "We won't accept it. We are sorry."
Zaw Htay, spokesman of the President's Office, warned on Wednesday that the organization, which has not yet obtained permission from the Myanmar government to enter the country, can do so when the boats arrive or risk being stopped or attacked by Myanmar security forces, and its crew deported.
The Indonesian government has already sent 10 shipping containers of food, baby food, and clothes for Rohingya affected by the violence in northern Rakhine.
The two predominantly Muslim countries called on Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de facto leader, to allow unimpeded humanitarian access to the areas affected by violence when they and other member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met with her on Dec. 19 to discuss the crisis in northern Rakhine.
Two suspected attackers detained
In the meantime, security forces that have been deployed in northern Rakhine since deadly Oct. 9 attacks on three border guard stations have detained two more suspected attackers – Kodi Mula and Mamut Arlong – in predominantly Muslim Maungdaw township, the State Counselor's Office announced Friday.
Authorities have detained roughly 600 people in connection with the raids during which nine officers were killed and subsequent violence between security forces and armed men in northern Rakhine. Nearly 90 others have been killed in the crackdown.
The State Counselor's office also said a village administrator from Gwasone village in Maungdaw township had been kidnapped on Dec. 29 by six armed men.
Security forces and authorities are investigating the matter, along with the apparent murders of three other Muslim men who worked in local administrative capacities in their communities.
The men, who all were found dead in the past week, are said to have collaborated with government authorities as they continue to try to round up those who raided the border guard stations.
The security lockdown and search for suspects has forced about 50,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, according to the Myanmar government, where some have accused troops of arson, rape, and murder.
On Friday, the Myanmar government said it would take back 2,415 of the estimated total 300,000 of its citizens who have taken refuge in Bangladesh during the past decades, amid growing tension between the two countries about the recent tens of thousands of Rohingya who have sought refuge there, Reuters reported.
Bangladesh has refused to grant the Rohingya refugee status because it considers them citizens of Myanmar, while Myanmar considers the Rohingya illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
"There are only 2,415 Myanmar citizens, according to our data," Kyaw Zaya, director general of the foreign affairs ministry told Reuters, referring to the number of Myanmar citizens in Bangladesh.
Appeal to U.N.
The crisis prompted 23 Nobel laureates, politicians, philanthropists, and activists on Thursday to urge the United Nations to intervene in the situation.
They wrote an open letter to the U.N. Security Council asking it to add the crisis to its agenda as an urgent matter, calling it "a human tragedy amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity" and requested that the secretary-general visit the country in the new few weeks.
The signatories also blasted Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's de facto leader and a Nobel Peace Prize winner herself, for not doing enough to protect the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and rights to basic services such as education and health care in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
"If we fail to take action, people may starve to death if they are not killed with bullets, and we may end up being the passive observers of crimes against humanity which will lead us once again to wring our hands belatedly and say 'never again' all over again," the letter said.
In a related development, a Rakhine volunteer group in the town of Thandwe started monitoring the citizenship process for Muslims on Dec. 24, the group's leader Myint Moe told the Myanmar Service of Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews.
The group has informed the General Administration Department of the Police and Immigration Office and will meet with immigration officers from the capital Naypyidaw, he said.
Of Thandwe's population of 120,000, about 8,000 hold temporary identification cards known as white cards, and more than 800 have applied for national identification cards, he said.
White card holders must show proof of a long family history in Rakhine state if they want to obtain Myanmar citizenship and have a national identification card.
Under the previous government, the holders were supposed to surrender their cards by May 31, 2015, and receive green cards from the immigration ministry so they could apply for citizenship, but not everyone turned them in.
Those who possess green cards can apply for full Myanmar citizenship, but must first undergo a citizenship verification process.
"We have 474 ethnic Kaman people [who practice Islam], so it is OK to issue ID cards to them," Myint Moe said.
But the 8,000 others who are applying for ID cards include Rohingya trying to pass themselves off as ethnic Kaman, he said.
"We don't want these people to get IDs," he said. "We will be watching. Local people know who the real Kaman are and who is not."


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BENARNEWS- The terrorist threat in Malaysia is "under control" but recruitment of locals by extremist groups like Islamic State persists, the chief of the Malaysian police's counter-terror special branch told BenarNews in a year-end interview.
In 2016 Malaysian authorities arrested, charged and prosecuted more suspects in terrorism-related cases than in the previous year, and they also foiled six terrorist plots by IS, according to special branch chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay.
The Middle Eastern-based group, however, claimed responsibility for a grenade attack at a nightclub near Kuala Lumpur six months ago that injured eight people – its first terror act committed on Malaysian soil.
And while arrests and prosecutions of suspected militants were up this calendar year, 60 Malaysians, including 12 women and 17 children, are currently in Syria or Iraq – where IS is fighting to hold on to territory it controls – compared with 95 previously, Ayob said.
"Recruitment is still active. Malaysians still find ways to go to Syria," Ayob said Friday in an interview at his office in Kuala Lumpur.
"They are getting smarter and daring. Nevertheless, my team is on high alert and we are on our toes all the time," he said.
Yet he declined to disclose his department's plans to counter terrorist threats in 2017.
"As for the threat, the situation is under control. Monitoring and surveillance have been increased," Ayob added.
Crippled plots
The number of arrests of suspected terrorists has increased each year since 2013, according to the police official.
Police made 119 arrests this year compared with 82 last year – a 45 percent increase. Fifty-nine arrests were made in 2014 and four arrests in the previous year, Ayob noted.
"This year saw an increase in arrests, but not only just that as there was also an increase in the number of charges and prosecutions," he said, adding that 122 suspects have been charged in court, including 62 convicted for terror-related offenses in the past three years.
Out of a total of 264 suspects arrested since 2013, 66 have since been freed, according to figures given by Ayob.
Among radicalized Malaysians who have managed to reach Syria or Iraq, 27 have been killed in the region since 2013, including nine who killed themselves in suicide bombings, he said.
Sixty Malaysians are believed to still be in the war-torn region.
Rating his branch's performance as "good," Ayob conceded that it "can always do better."
"We have crippled 6 IS attempts to create chaos in the country this year and seized caches of weapons and IEDs from suspects, who were mostly lone wolves who were awaiting directives to launch attacks on individuals and buildings," Ayob said, noting that five terrorist plots were foiled in 2015.
'Constant'
Security analyst Ahmad El-Muhammady commended the Royal Malaysia Police's counter-terrorist special branch for a "remarkable" track record in combating the problem over many years, but he warned that the threat of terrorism wouldn't go away in the new year.
"The threat of terrorism in Malaysia is constant. It does not go away," Ahmad, who assists Malaysian authorities in de-radicalization programs, told BenarNews.
He said the so-called "lone wolf" threat was the most difficult to stop, and added that Malaysian IS members still communicate with people in their home country.
Police have accused Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, who left for Syria in January 2015, of recruiting the people who threw the grenade at the Movida nightclub in Puchong on June 28. Authorities also blame him for allegedly orchestrating a foiled terrorist plot targeting Malaysian Independence Day celebrations in August.
"The possibility of local elements operating independently - this is the hardest target...," Ahmad said.
Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani, an analyst with Bower Group Asia, a risk consulting firm, said Malaysian authorities have done a "tremendous job" in combating terrorism.
"But with terrorism, we cannot depend on the authorities alone and need greater public awareness, which I think we are severely lacking," he told BenarNews.
"Malaysians, especially Malays, still assume the country is safe from attacks because we are a Muslim country but terrorism is blind to race and faith."


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BENARNEWS- Leaders of Malaysian civil society and non-governmental organizations expressed their wishes that 2017 would bring a return of integrity among government leaders, respect for workers and the opportunity for dissenting voices to be heard unimpeded.
Akhbar Satar, president of the Malaysian chapter of Transparency International and one of several local NGO leaders who gave BenarNews their "wish list" for the new year, said he wanted to see leadership by example at the government and non-government level.
"I wish to see leaders with a sincere political will to fight corruption," he told BenarNews.
For Lawyers of Liberty (LFL) Executive Director Eric Paulsen, it is important that state institutions, including the judiciary, police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Attorney General's Office, remain free and independent in 2017 "as the only way to ensure good governance," he said.
1MDB
Paulsen's new year's wish is that a corruption and financial mismanagement scandal linked to state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and that has overshadowed Prime Minister Najib Razak for 17 months be settled once and for all.
"1MDB will be the prime target as billions and billions of state funds were plundered but yet not a single person (in Malaysia) has been charged or held liable," Paulsen told BenarNews.
The United States Department of Justice is seeking to recover more than U.S. $1 billion (4.49 billion ringgit) in money allegedly stolen through 1MDB. Neighboring Singapore has sentenced three bankers to jail for their involvement.
To date, no individual in Malaysia has been named nor charged for any form of wrongdoing pertaining to 1MDB.
"We are still investigating," Inspector General Police Khalid Abu Bakar told BenarNews on Dec. 21.
Najib has maintained his innocence over 1MDB since the Wall Street Journal reported in July 2015 that about $700 million was transferred from the state fund to his personal bank accounts.
While Najib was not named in the U.S. lawsuits, which were announced in July 2016, news organizations have identified him as "Malaysian Official 1" in court documents.
On July 21, a day after U.S. Justice officials publicized the suits, Najib said that the Malaysian government was "serious about good governance." He urged people to not jump to any conclusions, saying that no criminal charges had been filed.
Meaningful debate
Shamini Darshni, executive director of Amnesty International Malaysia, said she wished to see no laws being "used and misused" against dissenting voices, pointing to disturbing actions in 2016.
"I'm waiting for the day that the civil society space will be expanded to include various points of view, that meaningful, healthy and intelligent debates and discussions may take place without fear of reprisal," Shamini told BenarNews.
She pointed to the case of Maria Chin Abdullah, leader of the Bersih grassroots coalition that advocates clean government. On Nov. 18, Maria Chin was arrested on the eve of a massive good government rally that Bersih was organizing in Kuala Lumpur. She was held for 10 days under Malaysia's strict Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA).
Activists protested her detention, claiming the government had trampled on her right to free speech.
Another public figure and government critic, Zunar, has been arrested twice since November and faces a travel ban. The winner of the 2016 Cartooning for Peace Award and BenarNews contributor is known for cartoons that lampoon Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and Najib while highlighting themes such as corruption.
Zunar also faces nine counts under the Sedition Act for allegedly insulting the judiciary in tweets made regarding the conviction of former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in a sodomy case in February 2015. If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to 43 years in jail.
A worker's perspective: 'Treated as tools'
For J. Solomon, the secretary general of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC), the government in 2017 must address a lack of respect for workers, suppressed wages along with insufficient job opportunities, among other things.
"Workers are being treated as tools and not as living souls with families and a life to live.
"A genuine and constructive collaboration and cooperation between the tripartite organs – MTUC, Malaysian Employers Federation and the Malaysian government – will be able to uplift the morale of the workers by putting in place the necessary international standards to improve their livelihoods," he told BenarNews.
Meanwhile, leaders of migrant workers are calling on the government to give refugees and asylum seekers the opportunity to contribute to the country's growth by giving them jobs.
"We have at least 90,000 Rohingya Muslims in the country and we are ready to work. Please allow us," Faisal Islam Muhammad Kassim, president of the Rohingya Society in Malaysia (RSM), told BenarNews recently.


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BENARNEWS-Malaysia's Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Wednesday announced it had seized cash and gold worth 3 million ringgit (U.S. $667,037) from the home of a high-ranking government official and arrested him on suspicion of corruption and abuse of power.
The move marks the first high-profile corruption arrest in Malaysia in 2017, after the MACC nabbed several top officials and seized tens of millions of ill-gotten ringgit in 2016.
The individual was detained at his home in an affluent part of Subang Jaya, Selangor early Tuesday, according to a MACC statement. A 29-year-old man was also arrested, it said.
"The aforementioned MSG, aged 59, is believed to have abused his power and position to accept bribes from those who had business with him," the statement said, using an acronym for the man's rank, ministry secretary-general.
"The 29-year-old man is believed to have received and retained the proceeds of bribes from contractors, suppliers, and vendors who had business with the MSG," it said.
The agency seized cash and gold bars worth 3 million ringgit during the arrest, the statement said.
The Star newspaper, citing MACC Deputy Commissioner of Operations Azam Baki, named the suspect as Mohd Arif Ab Rahman from the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development. According to the ministry's website, he is its number four official.
'A life of luxury'
The MACC opened close to 1,000 investigations into corruption and abuse of power in 2016, according to a report Tuesday in the New Straits Times. It arrested 932 people, of whom 258 had been charged by Dec. 15, the report said.
In October, MACC investigators seized 52 million ringgit (U.S. $11.6 million) in cash, as well as luxury cars, watches, handbags, and folders containing land grants from the homes of two officials in Sabah, Malaysia.
Former Sabah Water Department Awang Mohd Tahir Mohd Talib, 54, his wife, Fauziah Piut, 51, and his former deputy director Lim Lam Beng, 62, were charged on multiple counts of money laundering in December. All three say they are innocent.
MACC has been investigating a number of high-profile cases involving government officials in the Malaysian states of Johor, Malacca, Penang and Kelantan.
"We don't want public service to be marred by corruption and to see senior officials living a life of luxury beyond their income, and accumulating wealth through criminal acts of corruption," Chief Commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad told state news agency Bernama after taking the helm of the MACC in July.
On Tuesday, a Malaysian media outlet reported that a senior official of the anti-graft agency had retired two years early due to the agency's failure to prosecute a case involving state fund SRC International.
A probe into the case involved allegations that 42 million ringgit of SRC funds had ended up in Prime Minister Najib Razak's personal bank accounts. But Malaysia's attorney general found that the case had no merit, and it was not brought to court.
"I'm not only disappointed, but I also felt like I had sinned against 30 million Malaysians when the SRC case could not be taken to court," the former head of MACC's Special Operations Division Bahri Mohd Zin reportedly told Free Malaysia Today, which published what it said were screen shots of the online conversation.
In a statement late Tuesday, MACC denied the report.
"In regards to a statement published in a media portal today stating Dato Bahri chose to retire early due to disappointment that investigation into SRC International (SRC) failed to be brought to court, MACC had contacted Dato Bahri and he denied making such a statement to the portal," the statement said.
Attempts by BenarNews to reach Bahri for comment were unsuccessful.


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BENARNEWS- Businesses in Malaysia that hire millions of foreign workers are fuming over a new government policy requiring them to pay an annual tax for every non-Malaysian on their payrolls.
Until the rule took effect on Jan. 1, each foreigner among a migrant workforce of at least 2 million documented people was required to pay an annual levy that took a bite of 15 percent to 20 percent out of his or her annual earnings.
Business leaders argue that the policy will channel money away from the national economy because foreign workers will have more money to send home through remittances. Industry people say this will also increase their operating costs and force them to pass those on to the consumer.
One hundred and fifty-nine local business associations have sent a letter to Prime Minister Najib Razak complaining about the new policy, said Shamsuddin Bardan, executive director of the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF). The prime minister's office has yet to comment on the letter sent last week.
"We call for the government to repeal the move because of the serious impact on the local economy and the increased cost of doing business," Shamsuddin told BenarNews.
The Employer Mandatory Commitment (EMC), as the levy is known, was to be implemented in February 2016, but that was delayed until the first day of 2017 because of complaints from employers.
The EMC requires businesses to bear the annual levy for each foreign worker in their employ – 1,850 ringgit (U.S. $413) per worker in category one (manufacturing, construction and service industries) and 640 ringgit ($143) per worker in category two (plantation and agriculture). The initial plan called for employers to pay a higher levy – 2,500 ringgit ($558) per category one worker and 1,500 ringgit ($335) per category two worker – but it was scuttled in March 2016.
Tens of thousands people from Bangladesh, Myanmar and other Asian countries have migrated to relatively more prosperous Malaysia in the hopes of scratching out a living by often taking on grueling and even dangerous menial jobs.
Bangladeshi worker Mohammad Rakib, 44, expressed delight at the new policy, saying he would able to send home more money that he would have otherwise lost in paying off the old levy.
"This will definitely help with my eldest daughter's higher education," Rakib, a petrol pump attendant who's been working in Malaysia for five years, told BenarNews.
A deterrent for trafficking: government
Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the new policy would require employers to ensure that their hired foreign workers did not abscond, change sectors, overstay their visits or become illegal immigrants.
"There were instances where foreign workers ran away and the employers washed their hands of the matter and left it to the Immigration Department, police and other agencies to locate and send back the workers," Zahid told state news agency Bernama. "Such incidents gave room to irresponsible people to indulge in human trafficking."
Malaysia's foreign legal workforce is a little more than 2 million but officials estimate that more than 1 million more are undocumented workers.
Business groups are pushing back, including the Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association (MARGMA), which argues that the policy will force the industry to pay up to 90 million ringgit ($20 million) a year to cover the levy alone.
"The move would also result in foreign workers sending back up to 5 billion ringgit ($1.1 billion) a year back to their home countries, causing a cash drain in the country," MARGMA President Denis Low Jau Foo said.
A political party, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), is among those that oppose the idea of transferring the burden of the levy onto employers.
"The policy would see foreign workers earning about 15 percent more, and this would cause locals to also ask for higher salaries – further burdening businesses which are already hit hard by the economic slowdown," said Chris Lee Ching Yong, deputy chairman of the party's youth division.
Billions in revenue
Zahid, who is also deputy prime minister, said the commitment would be in effect from the job application stage, right up until foreign workers are sent back to their countries.
The government is expected to gain 2.5 billion ringgit ($558 million) from the levy each year under the new rule, Zahid added.
In recent years, Malaysia was marred by allegations that foreign workers were not paid a minimum wage, their movements were restricted and employers kept their passports.
The change is seen as an attempt to improve Malaysia's reputation as a human trafficking hub in the region.
In 2015, the U.S. Department of State bumped Malaysia to the Tier 2 Watch List from its Tier 3 blacklist of countries that failed to do enough to combat human trafficking. Critics said Malaysia was promoted as an incentive for joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal being negotiated then by President Obama. For 2016, Malaysia remains on the Tier 2 Watch List.
Some welcome new rule
Not all industries see the change as a negative.
Mohamad Audong, the head of the Malayan Agricultural Producers Association (MAPA), said that the move would not affect it because plantation companies that are members have already been paying levies for their workers.
"Although we were given the option to deduct the levy from foreign workers' pay, we don't do that," he said. "When the government implemented minimum wages in 2012, we were given the option to deduct workers' salary for levy payment. At that time, all employers deducted, except plantations."
The minimum monthly wage for all workers, including those of foreign origin, is 1,000 ringgit ($223) in Peninsular Malaysia and 920 ringgit ($205) for those working in the Borneo island states of Sabah and Sarawak, effective July 1, 2016.


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BENARNEWS- The machete-killings of five Myanmar workers in a Kuala Lumpur suburb last week stemmed from an old dispute with fellow countrymen who came from the same village in Myanmar, the police chief of Selangor state told local media Tuesday.
An investigation has ruled out that Malaysians were involved in the killings, or these were religiously motivated or done in retaliation for the alleged mistreatment of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine state during a military crackdown in the predominantly Buddhist country, Selangor Police Chief Abdul Samah Mat said.
The killings were an act of revenge between Myanmar nationals from the same village whose feuding had escalated on Malaysian soil, he added without naming the village.
The five workers were hacked to death and two other Myanmar nationals were hospitalized with injuries following an assault at around 10 p.m. Thursday on 13 workers from Myanmar, as they were returning together from an overtime shift at a TV hardware factory in Bukit Serdang, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur in Selangor, according to news reports.
Local authorities have detained at least seven people in connection with Thursday's killings, state-run Malaysian news agency Bernama reported. Four of the victims died at the scene while the fifth died in a hospital, reports said.
"We are still investigating. There was no evidence to show that it was connected to the crisis at Rakhine State or religion related," the police chief told reporters.
"At the moment we only establish that it was a result of a fight and we are still investigating the cause of it," he said.
Safety of Myanmar workers questioned
The police chief of Selangor also said his department would give Myanmar migrants the same level of protection given to Malaysian citizens.
Last year, at least seven Myanmar nationals working in Malaysia were killed in grisly slayings, according to a report in the Myanmar Times, and two dozen more were killed in other incidents in 2013 and 2014.
"We give them the same attention as we give our people when it comes to safety and security," Abdul said.
Nonetheless, thousands of workers returned to Myanmar from Malaysia in 2014 after roughly 25 were killed between June 2013 and September 2014 in what some observers told Malaysian media at the time might have been linked to communal violence in Rakhine, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency said in a Dec. 7, 2016, report.
"I feel so sorry for our migrants. Our Myanmar workers are always being attacked. They have no protection," San Win, chairman of the Kathpone Free Funeral Service Society in Kuala Lumpur, which provides free funerals for impoverished people from Myanmar, told the Myanmar Times.
On Monday, Myanmar's government said it had sent out a safety advisory to its workers in Malaysia following last week's killings, according to Reuters.
Bilateral tensions
Tensions between Myanmar and Malaysia have risen in recent weeks, amid criticism by Malaysian officials of Myanmar's handling of violence in Rakhine state.
Muslim-majority Malaysia criticized Myanmar and its powerful military for alleged violent acts against Rohingya during a crackdown in northern Rakhine following deadly attacks on border guard stations in the region in early October.
Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak had said that Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya amounted to "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing," prompting Myanmar to hit back at Malaysia for meddling in its affairs.
The violence in Rakhine has caused an exodus of Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh. On Monday, the United Nations announced that 65,000 Rohingya had crossed over since early October, with as many as 22,000 making it to the Bangladeshi side within the past week, Agence France-Presse reported.
Nearly one-half million workers
There are more than 400,000 Myanmar migrant workers in Malaysia, around 100,000 of whom are illegal workers, according to Myanmar's embassy in Kuala Lumpur, though some estimate the number of undocumented Myanmar workers in the country at about 500,000, the report said.
Many working in the country illegally often work long hours in dangerous conditions with few means of getting better conditions or pay, it said.
Last July, the Myanmar embassy in Malaysia created a protection task force for migrant workers made up of representatives from roughly 50 civil society organizations based in the country, including the Kathpone Free Funeral Service Society, the Myanmar Times reported.
In December, the Myanmar government last December stopped sending workers to Malaysia because of safety concerns amid growing tension between the two nations over the conflict in Rakhine state.
Anis Natasha in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Maritime kidnappings worldwide set a 10-year record in 2016 with an alarming increase in abductions from Indonesian and Malaysian vessels in the seas between Borneo and the southern Philippines, an international piracy watchdog said in a report published Tuesday.
There were more crew kidnappings at sea last year across the globe than at any time in the last decade, with 62 incidents overall, but nearly half, 28, took place off ships in the Sulu Sea and other waters off Borneo, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), whose Piracy Reporting Center is based in Kuala Lumpur.
The worldwide number of kidnapping incidents at sea in 2016 was more than three times the number in the previous year, 19, said the IMB, which noted, however, that global acts of piracy last year reached their lowest level in nearly two decades.
"The kidnappings in the Sulu Sea between East Malaysia and the Philippines are a particular concern," said IMB director Pottengal Mukundan, whose organization has monitored world piracy since 1991.
"The continued fall in piracy is good news, but certain shipping routes remain dangerous, and the escalation of crew kidnapping is a worrying trend in some emerging areas," he said.
The IMB report pointed to "an emerging threat to merchant shipping" in Sulu and Celebes seas, where 12 crew members were kidnapped from two general cargo ships and an anchored fishing boat in the last quarter of 2016.
"Crews had previously been kidnapped from 'slow and low' moving tugs and barges in three separate incidents in the first half of 2016. This marks a worrying escalation of crew kidnappings in the area," the report said.
The IMB document did not mention a new case of eight Filipino fishermen whose bullet-ridden bodies were found in their outrigger boat in the Moro Gulf off the Zamboanga peninsula of southern Mindanao island, the Philippine military said Tuesday, according to Agence France-Presse.
Trilateral talks
Officials from the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia have blamed the recent kidnappings at sea on Filipino militants linked to the Abu Sayyaf Group, which is based in the southern Philippines.
Representatives of the three countries met several times in 2016 to establish a framework for maritime security cooperation, including joint patrols in their shared waters in the wake of a spate of kidnappings at sea.
Despite efforts to reach agreement, joint patrols involving the neighboring nations have not begun.
"I really hope we can do it in the near future," Indonesian Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Wuryanto told BenarNews in November. "We feel a bit disgraced now [because] the kidnappings keep going on and on."
Meanwhile, according to Malaysian officials, ASG is holding five Malaysian hostages who were kidnapped from waters off Lahad Datu in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah on July 18, 2016.
In December, Malaysian security personnel killed three gunmen and captured two others during a shootout off Sabah. The shootout erupted as gunmen in a speedboat approached a Tiger Platoon vessel patrolling local waters after mistaking it for a ship they planned to hijack. The Tiger Platoon is a unit with the Malaysian police's elite General Operations Force.
ASG also is holding two Indonesian sailors who were kidnapped on Nov. 20. The militant group kidnapped 27 Indonesians in 2016.
In March, 10 tugboat crew members were kidnapped and later freed on May 1. Four were kidnapped in April and freed on May 11 and seven were kidnapped in June with the last two being freed in December. Three were kidnapped in July and released in September as was a sailor who was kidnapped in August.
Azmi Hassan, a security analyst at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, told BenarNews that loose security enforcement in the Sulu Sea in southern Philippines allows ASG to hijack ships and carry out abductions, creating unsafe waters for merchant ships and others.
"Not only the Sulu Sea waters, but Philippines waters are uncontrolled and it is worse in the mainland of Mindanao which is uncontrollable by Manila," he said Tuesday.
He praised the decision by the new Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, to allow security forces from Malaysia and Indonesia to pursue pirates into Philippine waters, saying it showed Manila's seriousness in curbing kidnappings.
Hata Wahari in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia next week will host a meeting of foreign ministers from the Organization of Islamic States to discuss a humanitarian crisis surrounding Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority, the OIC said in a news release.
An extraordinary meeting of the OIC's Council of Foreign Ministers focusing on the Rohingya issue will take place in Kuala Lumpur on Jan. 19, according to the Islamic world's largest inter-governmental body.
Elsewhere on the diplomatic front, Myanmar Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Kyaw Tin met with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other officials in Dhaka on Wednesday to discuss the Rohingya situation, at the start of a three-day visit to Bangladesh.
Since early October, southeastern Bangladesh has seen an influx of 65,000 Rohingya fleeing violence amid a military crackdown in the neighboring Myanmar state of Rakhine, according to the United Nations.
The meeting of 56 OIC member-state representatives in Kuala Lumpur will be led by Prime Minister Najib Razak, Agence France-Presse quoted a Malaysian official.
The leader of predominantly Muslim Malaysia in recent weeks raised tensions with Buddhist majority Myanmar by describing a military crackdown in Rakhine state – which is home to the stateless Rohingya population – as a "genocide."
The upcoming meeting in Kuala Lumpur follows emergency meetings of OIC groups in Geneva and Brussels in late December, according to the OIC release. Participants discussed the Rohingya crisis amid reports that members of the minority had been killed and their homes torched during a military crackdown that followed the killing of a group of Burmese border guards in Maungdaw township in early October.
Some people from the stateless minority group have accused Myanmar security forces of arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and arson during the security operation, though both the government and army have denied the charges.
"The meetings sought to identify possible actions that may be taken in the lead-up to the forthcoming Extraordinary Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers to be convened on Jan. 19 in Kuala Lumpur on the Rohingya issue," the OIC release said about last month's discussions in Switzerland and Belgium.
"The groups called for concrete actions to address the basic human rights and humanitarian issues of this long suffering minority and called upon the government to ensure that the displaced Rohingya population are allowed to return to their homes in safety and dignity," the release added.
Take them back
In Dhaka, a spokesman for Hasina said the special envoy of Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi handed the prime minister a letter and told Hasina that "Myanmar wants to deepen ties and cooperation with Bangladesh."
But the PM "renewed her call" that Myanmar "take back all of its nationals from Bangladesh," said Ihsanul Karim, the PM's press secretary, referring to her government's call in late December that Naypyidaw repatriate "the entire" population of 300,000 to 500,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh over the years.
On Dec. 30, a day after Dhaka made that call, Myanmar's government said it would take back only 2,415 Rohingya living in Bangladesh, Reuters reported.
"During the meeting, the Honorable Prime Minister said the two countries could permanently resolve the refugee problems through discussion," Karim told BenarNews on Wednesday.
Karim said the prime minister also reassured the Burmese envoy that her government would maintain a policy of "zero tolerance against terrorism" by not allowing armed groups to use Bangladeshi territory as a haven for launching attacks on the country's neighbors, including Myanmar.
'Myanmar must accept the history'
The three-member delegation headed by Kyaw Tin arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday night.
On Wednesday, the team met for two hours with Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali at the government's Guest House in the capital.
The team met with Hasina on Wednesday evening. Neither Kyaw Tin nor any members of his team spoke to reporters after the meetings. The Myanmar embassy in Dhaka declined to comment.
The delegation is to return to Myanmar on Friday.
Retired Bangladeshi diplomat Ashfaqur Rahman, an expert on Southeast Asian affairs, described the visit by the Myanmar delegation as a positive development in bilateral relations.
"Myanmar's desire to cooperate with Bangladesh to deepen ties gives a hint that Suu Kyi's government wants to resolve the long-standing Rohingya problem. Rohingya infiltration is the main obstacle in the relations between Bangladesh and Myanmar," he told BenarNews.
But, he added: "Myanmar must accept the history and take back its Rohingya nationals living in Bangladesh. They cannot shrug off that the Rohingyas are the illegal migrants from [Myanmar]. A highly populated country like Bangladesh can no longer take hundreds of thousands of Myanmar nationals."
Kamran Reza Chowdhury in Dhaka contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Reacting to criticism from employers, the Malaysian government has reversed itself by suspending for at least a year a new policy requiring businesses that hire millions of migrants to be taxed for each foreigner on their payrolls.
The policy of imposing an annual levy on businesses – which used to be deducted from migrants monthly salaries – was only 10 days old before the government decided to go back to the old policy temporarily.
Cabinet members on Wednesday decided to postpone the policy until Jan. 1, 2018, after receiving complaints from business owners and employers the previous day. The decision means that foreign workers will still have to pay the tax for now.
"The cabinet had a thorough discussion on the matter. Paul Low [minister in the Prime Minister's Department] had an engagement session with stakeholders on Tuesday and presented the outcome at the cabinet meeting," Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told The Star. "Taking into consideration the views of the stakeholders, we have found it wise to delay the implementation of the levy payment by employers."
Malaysia's Director General of Immigration, Mustafar Ali, confirmed the decision but declined to give details.
"The levy under the EMC has been postponed to 2018," he told BenarNews.
The new Employer Mandatory Commitment (EMC), as the levy is known, would have required businesses to bear the annual levy for each foreign worker in their employ – 1,850 ringgit (U.S. $413) per worker in category one (manufacturing, construction and service industries) and 640 ringgit ($143) per worker in category two (plantation and agriculture).
The government expected to gain 2.5 billion ringgit ($558 million) from the levy each year under the new rule, according to Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Announcing the EMC on Dec. 31, Zahid said the move would require employers to ensure that their hired foreign workers did not abscond, change sectors, overstay their visits or become illegal immigrants.
'Matters need to be thrashed out'
After  Zahid's announcement, 159 local business associations sent a letter to Prime Minister Najib Razak complaining about the new policy, which took effect on Jan. 1.
Businesses welcomed this week's reversal, Shamsuddin Bardan, executive director of the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF), told BenarNews on Thursday.
He is calling for a thorough discussion with the minister in charge of the policy to avoid further disagreements.
"Definitely, EMC is a big issue and many matters need to be thrashed out, basically. All the industries and associations are calling for a discussion with the minister in charge of this, Paul Low, who was tasked to revamp the mechanism for the recruitment of foreign workers," he said.
The return to the old policy will not affect at least one group of employers.
Mohamad Audong, the head of the Malayan Agricultural Producers Association (MAPA), said association members had been paying levies despite being given the opportunity to collect the money from workers.
Millions of foreign workers
Tens of thousands people from Bangladesh, Myanmar and other Asian countries have migrated to relatively more prosperous Malaysia in the hopes of making a living by often taking on grueling menial jobs. Malaysia's foreign legal workforce is a little more than 2 million, but officials estimate that more than 1 million more are undocumented workers.
In November, Bangladesh's minister for expatriate welfare and overseas employment announced that Malaysia would start recruiting Bangladeshi workers for construction, plantation and manufacturing jobs before the end of the year. Malaysian officials did not comment after the two-day meeting.
The announcement came months after the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in February 2016 that called for Malaysia to recruit as many as 1.5 million workers from Bangladesh over the next three years.
The MoU was short-lived. A day later, Malaysian officials announced a moratorium on all new migrant workers.
About 300,000 Bangladeshis work in Malaysia and send about 110 billion taka (U.S. $1.4 billion) back home every year, according to Bangladesh government figures.
Bangladeshi worker Mohammad Rakib, 44, expressed hope earlier this week when discussing the EMC. Rakib planned to send the money he pays for the levy to his family.
"This will definitely help with my eldest daughter's higher education," Rakib, a petrol pump attendant who has been working in Malaysia for five years, told BenarNews on Monday.


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BENARNEWS- Governments from South to Southeast Asia last year behaved repressively or failed to do enough to translate rhetoric about democratic values and freedoms into real action, Human Rights Watch said in a scathing assessment in its World Report 2017.
The 697-page report, released Thursday, assessed the state of human rights in more than 90 countries. It pointed to deepening repression in Malaysia and Thailand, and criticized Bangladesh, Indonesia and India – the world's most populous democracy – for problems ranging from extrajudicial disappearances and killings, to restrictions on free speech, or not doing enough to defend minorities and secular thinkers from attacks or discrimination.
Malaysia: 'Out the window'
The human rights climate in Malaysia "markedly deteriorated in 2016" as its prime minister went after more critics who demanded his resignation over a corruption scandal known as the 1MDB affair, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported.
Throughout the year authorities used the Communication and Multimedia Act (CMA) to arrest critics of Najib Razak and his government, including those commenting on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, according to HRW.
"The Malaysian government has responded to corruption allegations by throwing respect for rights out the window," Phil Robertson, a deputy Asia director for HRW, said in a press release. "By bringing a slew of prosecutions against those expressing dissenting views or peacefully protesting, the government is seriously undermining democratic institutions and the rights of all Malaysian citizens."
The government has used the CMA to block websites and shut down newspapers over critical reports on 1MDB, and has arrested and prosecuted peaceful protesters, the rights watchdog said. Maria Chin Abdullah, the leader of the grassroots Bersih movement, was arrested one day before her organization held a massive rally calling for clean government under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act that allows suspects to be detained with no charges filed.
Thailand: 'Empty promises'
In Thailand, the junta headed by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha "increased its repression and failed to restore democratic rule in 2016," HRW reported.
The military government, which seized power in 2014, is now trying to enact a constitution that entrench its unaccountable power, the report said. The National Council of Peace and Order (NCPO), as the junta is formally known, has banned political activity, censored media, made hundreds of arbitrary arrests and detained civilians in military facilities, the report said.
In addition, the junta has used the country's strict royal defamation law to prosecute people for any expression that is seen as critical of the monarchy, HRW said. Earlier this week, supporters of suspect Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, better known as "Pai Dao Din," went to the National Human Rights Commissioner's office to submit a petition seeking help in efforts to free him on bail.
Jatupat was arrested on Dec. 3 for sharing a BBC article on Facebook that was deemed offensive to new King Maha Vajiralongkorn. Jatupat was released on bail two days later, but rearrested on Dec. 22 and his bail was revoked.
"Prime Minister Prayuth has fed the U.N. and its member countries empty promises on human rights," Adams said in a press release. "The junta needs to be pressed to end repression, respect fundamental freedoms, and return Thailand to democratic civilian rule."
Bangladesh: Justice 'non-existent'
The report blamed authorities in Bangladesh for failing to protect bloggers, secularists, gay rights activists, academics and others from attacks – sometimes fatal – by militant groups. In a press release accompanying the report, HRW said government officials had initially warned bloggers and others to refrain from "hurting the religious sentiment of others."
Finally in May, authorities set out to capture and try suspects linked to the killings of secular writers and minorities, but one month later, they rounded up 15,000 people wanted for crimes not tied to the attacks, the report noted.
Following a terrorist attack at a café in Dhaka that left 29 people dead, including five suspects, authorities launched a series of raids that killed dozens of militants allegedly linked to the attack. Other suspects were detained by police and could not contact family or attorneys, HRW reported.
"Bangladeshi security forces have a long history of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings. Justice for these abusive practices is non-existent," said HRW Asia Director Brad Adams.
"It is important that the Bangladeshi government act to protect its citizens from what has obviously been a growing security problem in the country, but it needs to do so in a rights-respecting manner."
India: growing speech restrictions
In India in 2016, government officials kept using sedition and defamation laws to prosecute critics, calling them anti-national, HRW said. Authorities, its view, also failed to address attacks against religious minorities by vigilantes who said they support the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"The BJP came into office with the promise of development and foreign investment, but has been unable to contain its supporters who engage in vigilante violence," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch in a press release.
"Repression and an ostrich approach to problems will only make investors doubt India's commitment to basic rights and the rule of law."
Indonesia: failed rhetoric
Human Rights Watch also took aim at Indonesia's president, who was elected in 2014 on a platform of bringing sweeping changes to government.
Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's "rhetorical support for human rights failed to translate into meaningful policy issues," the report said.
Beginning in January 2016, Indonesian officials made anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) statements and policy pronouncements that increased threats and at times led to attacks on LGBT activists and others, HRW observed.
"Jokowi's second year in office was distinguished by his failure to speak up in defense of human rights for persecuted minorities desperately in need of government support and protection," said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Although Jokowi's government announced long-overdue initiatives to promote accountability for the worst human rights abuses of the past, there was no official follow-through, and current abuses persisted."


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BENARNEWS- A leader of an Islamic State Malay-speaking fighting unit in Syria and two other Malaysians were killed Saturday in a government airstrike in Raqqah, Syria, Malaysian counter-terrorism unit chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay told BenarNews.
Zainuri Kamaruddin, 50, leader of Katibah Nusantara (KN), appeared in a Malay-language IS propaganda video circulated last year where Indonesian and Malaysian passports were burned. The 15-minute, 48-second video showed Southeast Asian children being drilled on extremist ideology, trained to use weapons and incited into burning what appear to be Indonesian and Malaysian passports, in an act of renouncing their citizenship.
At the end of the video, Zainuri leads the passport burning and threatens that the group will send its soldiers back to the Malay Archipelago to eradicate non-believers.
Ayob said Zainuri declared war on the Malaysian government in the video.
Zainuri, who was better known as Abu Talhah, was a former leader of Kumpulan Mujahiddin Malaysia (KMM), who trained in Afghanistan and was jailed in Malaysia for 10 years for possession of firearms, according to Ayob. He went to Syria in April 2014 and joined another rebel group, Ajnad al-Sham, before linking up with IS.
"Zainuri was involved in recruiting people to join the IS group in Syria through Facebook and have also made travel arrangements for them," he said.
A counter-terror analyst said the airstrike will hurt the militant group.
"The death of Zainuri Kamaruddin, also known as Abu Talhah, is a great loss to KN group, because Zainuri is a high-ranking member, well experienced in tactical and ideological methods, and is a highly motivated individual," analyst Ahmad El-Muhammady told BenarNews. "But, it doesn't mean its threat to Southeast Asia is diminishing. There are a number of others who are willing to take up the struggle forward."
Two others killed
Ayob identified the other Malaysians killed as Ahmad Asyraf Arbee Ahmad Jamal Arbee, also known as Abu Luqman Al Malizi, 31, and Sazrizal Mohd Sofian Thayalan, also known as Abu Badar Al Malizi, 27. Both went to Syria in November 2014.
Sazrizal, Ayob said, headed to Syria with his wife without the knowledge of their families and was among those appeared in Zainuri's video.
"Before heading for Syria, Sazrizal and his wife and some of their friends were working as fruit pickers in Australia to raise funds to go there," he said.
Among their friends was Mohamad Amirul Ahmad Rahim, a 26-year-old Malaysian who died when he drove a truck full of explosives, killing 21 others in a suicide attack in Raqqah last year.
Ayob said the death of the three men have brought the number of Malaysians killed to 30 of 95 who have being identified as being linked to IS in Syria.
Nine killed themselves in suicide bombings, Ayob told BenarNews in a year-end interview.
KN, the Malay Archipelago unit of IS, groups fighters from the Malay-speaking region of Malaysia and Indonesia including Southern Philippines.
The unit could become a fighting force in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, according to a 2014 report by the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, a Jakarta-based think-tank.
"From my standpoint, and information i am privy to, KN was and is working hard to recruit Malaysians to act on their behalf," analyst Ahmad said. "In my opinion, we can destroy KN once and for all, if all KN members in Syria are eliminated. It is not impossible. But, it is a difficult operation."
Malaysian authorities have arrested 264 IS suspects since 2013, 66 have since been freed, according to figures Ayob presented recently.


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BENARNEWS- Myanmar should allow international investigators to explore whether crimes amounting to genocide have targeted Rohingya Muslims in that country, according to a former Malaysian foreign minister who is special envoy to Myanmar for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Ahead of an extraordinary meeting of the OIC's Council of Foreign Ministers in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, which will focus on a humanitarian crisis surrounding the Rohingya community in Myanmar's Rakhine state, special envoy Syed Hamid Albar outlined some steps that the OIC should take in pressing Naypyidaw to solve the issue.
The Muslim world's largest inter-governmental body should, for one, discuss opening an office in Myanmar for the OIC or another international organization "to enable various investigations to be carried out to determine whether crimes involving genocide had occurred in Myanmar," Syed Hamid told BenarNews.
The OIC should also ensure that the stateless Rohingya minority "is granted citizenship by Myanmar because, historically, that ethnic group originated from the Arakan region," the Malaysian diplomat said, referring to Rakhine by another name.
Myanmar, he added, should not see such steps as an act of hostility, but as an attempt to resolve international conflicts through diplomacy.
Syed Hamid expects all 57 OIC members to attend Thursday's meeting.
The meeting will also look into other basic problems affecting Rohingya, such as a lack of food and medical supplies. The ministers are expected to press Myanmar to halt military operation in Rakhine and to take immediate action to protect the ethnic group, he said.
"I believe the OIC will take action to push Myanmar to take steps under the UN humanitarian charter to protect all minority groups, not only Muslims but also Christians in the country and make sure humanitarian aid reaches them," he said.
The meeting will be hosted by Malaysia, whose prime minister, Najib Razak, angered Myanmar recently by describing a military crackdown by Myanmar in Rakhine state as "genocide."
Rohingya have accused Myanmar security forces of arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and arson during the security operation, though both the government and army have denied the charges.
Previous discussions
The meeting on Thursday follows emergency meetings of OIC officials in Geneva and Brussels in late December, according to a statement from OIC.
Participants at those meetings discussed the Rohingya crisis amid reports that members of minority population were killed and their houses burned down during a military crackdown following the killings of a group of Myanmar border guards in Maungdaw township on Oct. 9.
Since that attack, nearly 90 people have been killed in ongoing violence and as many as 65,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, according to U.N. figures.
Faisal Islam Muhammad Kassim, president of Rohingya Society Malaysia (RSM), supports the OIC's diplomatic initiative.
"I really hope OIC will fight for the plight of ethnic Rohingya and will put pressure on the government of Myanmar," he told BenarNews.
The Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur said it would not comment on the upcoming meeting.
Anis Natasha contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Jailed de facto Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim can proceed with courtroom efforts to challenge a rejection of his bid two years ago where he sought a royal pardon for his sodomy conviction, Malaysia's Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday.
A three-judge panel ruled unanimously that the founder of the People's Justice Party (PJR) and political foe of Prime Minister Najib Razak could try to pursue a legal challenge to a decision by the Pardons Board in March 2015. It rejected his petition for a pardon that could have freed him from prison, where he is serving a five-year sentence, according to reports.
Wednesday's ruling means that Anwar can take his case to Malaysia's Federal Court, which can then decide whether he has the constitutional right to challenge the board's decision, Reuters reported.
"I'm here for the big fight," Anwar, 69, told reporters in court before being whisked away by prison officers following the ruling, according to the news service.
The move offers Anwar and his family some hope that he may be able to regain his freedom earlier than expected, according to his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the president of PKR. Previously, she had said that the decision by the Pardons Boards could not be disputed.
"However, Anwar has raised legal questions based on a case in the United Kingdom and the amendment of Article 40 (1A) [of the] Federal Constitution in 1994, in which Anwar's lawyers argued that the two issues above have major implications that if the Federal Court agreed with them, the results of the Pardon Board are questionable," she told BenarNews on Wednesday.
"We will be in court on Feb. 2, for this matter," she added.
Anwar's legal battles
Anwar is serving a five-year term at Sungai Buloh Prison for sodomizing a former aide in 2008.
In June 2012, Anwar was acquitted of a sodomy charge by Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohamad Zabidin. The judge was not convinced that a DNA sample taken from the former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukari, had not been tainted.
But on March 7, 2014, the Court of Appeal reversed the decision and sentenced Anwar to five years in prison. On Feb. 10, 2015, a Federal Court panel chaired by Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria rejected Anwar's appeal and maintained the conviction.
In March 2015, the Pardons Board rejected his petition for a royal pardon, but in June of that year, Anwar, Wan Azizah and their two daughters, Nurul Izzah and Nurul Nuha, filed a petition to have the board's ruling cancelled.
Anwar sought permission to challenge and revoke the board's decision and urged it to advise Malaysia's king to grant amnesty and release him. His wife and daughters sought an order to compel the board to reconvene and to consider all materials relating to the family's petition for a royal pardon.
Wednesday's decision occurred just over a month after it appeared that Ibrahim had lost his final courtroom battle to be freed from prison before the end of his sentence. On Dec. 14, 2016, the High Court rejected his petition to review the 2014 conviction, ruling unanimously that his application had no merit.
"This is not a fit and proper case for the court to use its inherent jurisdiction," High Court Chief Judge Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin said in handing down last month's decision.
A prosecutor at the time said Anwar had exhausted all legal avenues to have his conviction and sentence overturned. Any appeal before the Pardons Board appeared futile because of its previous rejection.
Unless Anwar is pardoned, he cannot challenge Najib in a general election scheduled for mid-2018. Malaysian law disqualifies a person who has been convicted from running for political office, according to Reuters.


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BENARNEWS- Delegates from 57 Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries ended a special meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday by voicing "grave concern" about the welfare of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims and calling on Naypyidaw to stop violence affecting the stateless minority.
The Muslim world's largest inter-governmental body urged Myanmar to restore calm in northwestern Rakhine state and ensure that its security forces follow the rule of law in a communiqué issued at the end of the one-day meeting of OIC's Council of Foreign Ministers. It also called on the country to hold all perpetrators of violence accountable,
The violence that has victimized Rohingya should stop and the root causes of the crisis should be tackled through interreligious and intercultural dialogue, host Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak told the OIC gathering.
"So, as a true and long-standing friend to Myanmar, I say this from the bottom of my heart: It is time to end this crisis," Najib said. "How should it be resolved? For a start, the killing must stop. The burning of houses must stop. The violation of women and girls must stop."
When contacted by Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews, a spokesman for Myanmar's government declined to comment Thursday on the meeting in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, outside the Malaysian embassy, Myanmar citizen Myat Hsu Mon staged a solo protest.
She told RFA's Myanmar service she had sent a letter to the embassy asking that the country respect the rights of the 135 ethnic groups on Myanmar's official list – which does not include the Rohingya.
"Fifty-seven OIC countries held a meeting in Malaysia to discuss a Myanmar problem," she said. "It is direct interference in and an insult to Myanmar's sovereignty. I can't accept it; and that's why I'm protesting."
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Myat Hsu Mon holds up a sign that reads "I reject the pressure of 57 OIC countries to Myanmar during a meeting in Malaysia," during a solo protest in Yangon, Jan. 19, 2017. [RFA]
UN intervention
Since the Myanmar military launched a crackdown in Rakhine in early October, following the killings of nine Burmese border guards by suspected insurgents, security personnel have been accused of carrying out killings, rapes, acts of arson and arbitrary arrests targeting Rohingya. The government in Naypyidaw has denied those allegations.
The OIC's communiqué also called on Myanmar to restore citizenship to thousands of Rohingya that was revoked under the country's Citizenship Act of 1982.
The document proposed steps to help solve the crisis. These include requesting the U.N. secretary general coordinate with Myanmar to arrange for a high-level OIC delegation to visit Rakhine state and meet with local officials and Rohingya.
It said another step was to ask the secretary general to explore joint initiatives between the U.N. and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that "can support the Government of Myanmar to develop and implement inter-faith and inter-communal dialogues."
The OIC represents at least 1.6 billion Muslims around the globe.
Thousands displaced
Nearly 90 people have been killed in the violence in Rakhine, and as many as 65,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, according to U.N. figures. In Bangladesh, the new refugees join at least 300,000 other Rohingya who had taken refuge in previous years in southeastern Cox's Bazar district.
Bangladesh has refused to grant the Rohingya refugee status because it considers them citizens of Myanmar. Myanmar, meanwhile, considers those who return to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and has denied them citizenship and access to basic services for decades.
Another 90,000 Rohingya refugees are in Malaysia. Of those, 56,000 have received refugee status cards from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Kuala Lumpur.
The OIC on Thursday invited its member-states to share the costs incurred by Bangladesh, Malaysia and other countries that are sheltering Rohingya "in accordance with the principles of burden-sharing and shared responsibility, and in the spirit of Islamic solidarity."
'The Rohingya cannot wait'
Najib, who leads predominantly Muslim Malaysia, angered Buddhist majority Myanmar in recent weeks by describing its military crackdown as "genocide."
"The government of Myanmar disputes the terms 'genocide' and 'ethnic cleansing,' but whatever the terminology, the Rohingya cannot wait," Najib said Thursday. "Many have suffered appalling deaths and those that have lived through the atrocities have witnessed or endured unspeakable cruelty. That in itself is a reason why we cannot keep silent."
In his speech, the prime minister warned that Islamic extremists could use the plight of the Rohingya, who are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by Myanmar's Buddhist-majority population, as a way to radicalize the minority group, which is denied basic rights.
"We fear that if the situation of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine State is not properly addressed, militant elements could infiltrate and possibly radicalize this oppressed community," Najib said, according to a transcript.
"OIC Member States are well aware that terrorist organizations such as Daesh could seek to take advantage of this situation," he added, using another acronym for Islamic State.
Citizenship: 'Very important'
Faisal Islam Muhammad Kassim, president of Rohingya Society Malaysia, welcomed OIC's call for citizenship for his people.
"This citizenship issue is very important. It we don't get any status in Myanmar, it will be very difficult for us to get basic human rights inside the country," he told BenarNews.
"If our people will get full citizenship rights in Myanmar, and if we have the opportunity to go back to Arakan, we are ready to go back to Myanmar," he added, referring to Rakhine by a different name.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian police said Monday they exposed a new Islamic State (IS) extremist cell that planned to use the eastern state of Sabah as a transit point for sending IS members to the Philippines.
The nation's police chief, Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said officers from his department discovered the cell after arresting four people – a Filipino man, two Bangladeshi men and a Malaysian woman – during counter-terror raids in Sabah and Kuala Lumpur on Jan. 13 and 19. All of the suspects are being held under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012.
The cell received orders from a former lecturer at Malaya University who allegedly became a militant in the southern Philippines, Mahmud Ahmad, and Isnilon Hapilon, a former leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group who leads IS Philippines, the Islamic State's affiliate in that country, Khalid said in a statement.
"With these arrests, the special branch crippled a new Daesh terror cell that planned to make Sabah a transit point for terrorists from Southeast Asia and South Asia to infiltrate into Philippines to join a terrorist group under the leadership of Mahmud and Isnilon," he said, using another term for IS.
"Aside from Mahmud, two more Malaysians, Darul Islam Sabah member Amin Bacho and Joraimee Awang joined the cell which has a base in Marawi City, Mindanao," Khalid said in a press statement that did not include the names of the four suspects arrested since Jan. 13.
Isnilon leads al Harakat ul Islamiyah Basilan, one of three southern Philippine militant groups that have pledged allegiance to IS and make up IS Philippines, according to Rohan Gunaratna, a BenarNews contributor who directs the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
Mahmud, a former lecturer in the university's Islamic Studies faculty, joined IS militants in Southern Philippines in January 2014, The Malay Mail Online reported.
Details released
While not naming those captured since Jan. 13, Khalid described the first suspect, the cell's chief recruiter, as a 31-year-old Filipino watch seller who was arrested in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
"The suspect who has pledged allegiance to Mahmud was instructed to recruit and organize new Daesh members from Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh and ethnic Rohingya to enter Southern Philippines to join the terror group in Marawi City, Mindanao," he said.
The second suspect, Khalid said, is a 27-year-old Malaysian woman from Selangor who was recruited by the first suspect through social media in early January. Khalid said she was arrested along with the first suspect in Kota Kinabalu after taking a flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Jan. 13.
"They were planning to fly to Sandakan before traveling to Southern Philippines," he said, adding that the woman said she was planning to marry her recruiter.
The two remaining suspects are Bangladeshi men, age 27 and 28. The salesmen were arrested in Kuala Lumpur on Jan. 19, Khalid said.
"Both men have been recruited by the first suspect and planned to join the group led by Mahmud in Southern Philippines," he said. "They have connections to IS cells in Bangladesh as well."
Since 2013, Malaysian authorities have arrested more than 260 IS suspects, of those 66 have since been freed, according to recent government figures.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities Tuesday detained 16 indigenous people and two journalists, and later released them, after dismantling a blockade set up by protestors against logging in the small town of Gua Musang in Kelantan state.
The two journalists, Jules Ong and Chitoo, Malaysians working as freelancers for Singapore-based Channel News Asia (CNA), were released Tuesday evening, according to activists. The 16 others were released earlier in the day.
"Actions of the arrested indigenous people are against the provision of the National Forestry Act 1984 (Amendment 1993) because the status of the areas where they had built those blockades are Federal Reserve Forest and not their actual village," the Forestry Department of Kelantan said in a statement.
Ong is a Malaysian freelance television director producing a documentary on deforestation in Kelantan, according to CNA.
"Channel News Asia came to know of his arrest from Malaysian media reports. Channel News Asia, which operates across the whole of Asia, will co-operate fully with any official investigation," the broadcaster said in a statement.
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A journalist sits handcuffed after being detained by forestry department officials, Jan. 24, 2017. [Courtesy of Siti Kassim]
The detentions followed similar action on Monday, when five people were detained and blockades at Simpang Petei, Gua Musang were removed. All were released on the same day, according to media reports.
Indigenous groups began setting up blockades in the Balah Forest Reserve in Gua Musang in September to force state officials to stop granting licenses to clear timber in the area.
At the time, members of the Kelantan Network of Orang Asli Villages set up a blockade in an area they claim as their ancestral land. They rebuilt it after a tense standoff with loggers in which shots were fired, according to the activists – a claim denied by a police official.
Between November and December, 54 indigenous people were taken into custody for setting up blockades, according to the forestry department.  Following their release, they erected another blockade.
Illegal loggers
The department said it would keep combatting encroachment on forests by illegal loggers and that is has expanded its role to help the community through the Indigenous Welfare Department. About 133 officers from the department and other authorities have been involved in efforts since Monday.
"The department would like to inform that a number of meetings with leaders of indigenous people ... were held on Jan. 10 and Jan. 19 and the responses were positive," it said in its statement.
"Nevertheless, some indigenous people have to respect existing laws under the state authority and should not be too easily duped and influenced by outsiders because this is not the way to resolve the indigenous claims."
Human rights body reacts
On Tuesday, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) said it was appalled that the department had demolished the blockade set up to protect the forests and customary land.
SUHAKAM chairman Razali Ismail said he was deeply concerned that this "marginalized and vulnerable community who are among Malaysia's poorest minority" have been targets of long-standing discrimination.
"These blockades are a symbol of protest by them, opposing unrestrained commercialization of the forests, which violates the many established principles on business and human rights, such as the duty of the state to protect, and [it is the] duty of businesses to respect the human rights of the Orang Asli," he said. "Orang Asli" is the term used for the indigenous people in Malaysia who comprise about 12 percent of the country's 31 million people.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines have agreed to team up to counter a regional threat posed by Islamic State, the deputy Malaysian prime minister said Thursday amid reports that the eastern state of Sabah is a hub for IS activities.
Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi discussed the trilateral efforts after meeting in Putrajaya with outgoing Indonesian Ambassador Herman Prayitno.
"We will work together to hunt down terrorists and stop the IS ideology in the region," Zahid said, according to the New Straits Times. "In terms of enforcement operations, we will no longer work individually, but will collaborate for this purpose."
He said the leaders of the three countries – Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte – had all agreed to build trilateral cooperation against IS.
Speaking to reporters during his meeting with the ambassador, Zahid praised the neighboring country for cooperation in combating IS.
"We have discussed with them formally and informally, especially Indonesia. Indonesia is especially concerned about the involvement of a few Indonesian individuals in Daesh activities. Indonesia has also introduced very strict laws similar to what we have here," he said in televised comments, referring to IS by a different name.
He also lauded Indonesia and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for strengthening operations against terrorism.
Sabah debate
The three countries share concerns about IS in the southern Philippines, where IS-linked militant groups are battling government forces. Apart from a series of maritime kidnappings of Indonesian and Malaysian sailors, carried out by Abu Sayyaf Group militants in the area, the IS-related security concerns appear to have now spread to the nearby Malaysian state of Sabah, on Borneo island.
This week, Malaysia's police chief, Khalid Abu Bakar, said Sabah should be considered a hub for IS activities, pointing to its role as part of a triangle involving the three nations. The triangle involving Sabah, Indonesian and the southern Philippines allows IS to carry out its activities, including human trafficking, he said.
"We are always placing our antenna there to monitor their activities," he said on Star TV.
On Monday, Khalid's department announced it had uncovered a new IS cell and arrested four of its members – a Malaysian, a Filipino and two Bangladeshis – who allegedly planned to use Sabah as a transit point for sending IS fighters to the southern Philippines. They had received orders from two IS-linked militants based in the neighboring country, Khalid alleged.
Ramli Din, the commissioner of police for Sabah, said officers were monitoring several locations around the state for IS-related activity.
"We have identified several of locations in Sabah that are being used by the militants as a transit point before gaining access into the southern Philippines," he said, according to the New Straits Times, but added that he could not disclose the locations for security reasons.
But Malaysia's defense minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, disputed the claims made by police officials that Sabah serves as a staging ground for Islamic State activities.
"It's not true. I don't think Tawau is a transit center for Daesh," the minister said as quoted in Berita Harian, a Malaysian news outlet, referring to a town on Sabah's east coast.
"This is now a borderless world and when there are no borders, we do not require any transit point," Hishammuddin added.
Ongoing meetings
Representatives of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines met several times last year to establish a framework for maritime security cooperation, including joint patrols in their shared waters in the wake of kidnappings linked to Abu Sayyaf, which has aligned itself with IS.
Despite those meetings, joint patrols have not begun.
"I really hope we can do it in the near future," Indonesian Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Wuryanto told BenarNews in November. "We feel a bit disgraced now [because] the kidnappings keep going on and on."
Philippine President Duterte, who took office in June, announced that Malaysian and Indonesian security forces could pursue kidnappers into Philippine waters to rescue hostages.
On Jan. 16, Duterte told businessmen in Davao City that he had instructed the Navy and Coast Guard to bomb kidnappers who were trying to escape, referring to their hostages as "collateral damage," the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.


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BENARNEWS- A military offensive has apparently injured the leader of Islamic State's affiliate in the Philippines who is linked to a newly uncovered terrorist cell in Malaysia, as well as killed four militants including a Malaysian, according to reports published Friday.
Isnilon Hapilon, reportedly fled from a camp in Lanao del Sur, a province in the southern Philippines, after being injured in a military operation on Wednesday and Thursday that consisted of ground and air strikes, Philippine military chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Ano told the Associated Press (AP).
Hapilon suffered an arm injury and had to be carried by others during his escape, Philippine television news ABS-CBN reported. The news reports did not identify the Malaysian who was killed.
Terrorism experts have described Hapilon, a former leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group, as the head of IS Philippines – which consists of three militant groups that have sworn allegiance to the Middle East-based Islamic State group – and Malaysian and Indonesian supporters of the group last year referred to him as their regional "emir" in an IS propaganda video.
His reported injury is the second blow to IS Philippines this month. On Jan. 5, another IS leader based in the southern Philippines, Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, who was known as Tokboy, was shot dead by security forces on a beach in Mindanao island, officials said.
He was the founder and leader of Ansarul Khilafa Philippines (AKP), one of the three groups that make up the Philippine branch of IS, according to experts.
Reacting to the reports about the killings of the four militants and the wounding of Hapilon, Malaysia's police chief told BenarNews that security forces in the eastern state of Sabah – which is close to the southern Philippines – were ready to intercept any militants trying to flee from the Philippine offensive.
"We fully support Philippines forces' assault on the terrorist groups in the south. We will give our fullest cooperation," Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said late Friday. "Our front-line troops have been put on alert for any attempt by these terrorist members to flee the south and take refuge in Sabah."
Earlier this week, Khalid announced that police had arrested a Filipino and two Bangladeshis along with a Malaysian woman. He said the four were part of a new IS cell that planned to use Sabah as a transit point for sending militants to the Philippines.
The cell had received orders from Hapilon and a former lecturer at Malaya University, Mahmud Ahmad, Khalid said in a statement issued Monday.
'A question of time'
Hapilon leads al Harakat ul Islamiyah Basilan, one of the groups that make up IS Philippines, according to Rohan Gunaratna, a BenarNews contributor who directs the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and has referred to Hapilon as the overall leader of IS Philippines.
A former Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) deputy leader responsible for the Basilan area, Hapilon broke away from ASG and unified several groups pledging allegiance to IS and inviting foreign fighters.
"With President Dutarte vowing to dismantle the IS-centric threat groups in the Philippines, Hapilon relocated from Basilan in Western Mindanao to Central Mindanao in December 2016," Gunaratna told BenarNews on Friday.
"As Hapilon is not familiar with Central Mindanao, he has become vulnerable to injury and death. It is a question of time that he will be captured or killed."
Hapilon (pictured below in a notice circulated by the FBI) is on the U.S. government's list of most wanted terrorists for murder of a United States National outside the United States; hostage taking resulting in death; conspiracy to use and carry a firearm during a crime of violence; and using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence. The FBI is offering a reward of up to U.S. $5 million for information leading to his apprehension or conviction.
"Hapilon gained global notoriety in May 2001 when he and other ASG members kidnapped 20 tourists, including three U.S. nationals, from the Dos Palmas Resort on Palawan," according to the Counter Extremism Project. "ASG operatives beheaded one of the American hostages, Guillermo Sobero, and referred to his killing as a 'gift' to then-Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities on Monday scoured 2,400 square nautical miles off the eastern state of Sabah as they searched by air and sea for four Chinese tourists and a crewman after a boat carrying 30 people sank over the weekend.
As of 7 p.m. Monday (local time), authorities confirmed that three Chinese nationals had died while 20 tourists and two crewmen had been rescued. Authorities told reporters the search would go on through the night.
The owner had breached procedures, including overloading the boat, Sabah state Police Commissioner Ramli Din told state news agency Bernama. The owner and the two rescued crewmen were being held in police custody.
"Police will also investigate whether negligence led to the deaths of the tourists," Ramli said.
The high-speed boat carrying a crew of three and 27 tourists – all from China – was on its way to Mengalum island, a tourist destination 56 km (35 miles) northwest of Kota Kinabalu, the state capital, when it encountered heavy and pounding waves and sank on Saturday morning, according to authorities.
The boat had left the jetty in Kota Kinabalu around 9 a.m., but when it failed to reach the island 12 hours later, the tour company filed a report the vessel was missing.
China concerned
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that authorities were monitoring developments after Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday had "demanded all-out search and rescue efforts," Xinhua news, China's official news agency, reported.
Xinhua added that an emergency team, led by an official from Beijing's national tourism administration, had been mobilized to handle the incident.
"Yesterday was the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year and it should have been a happy day. Unfortunately, such a bad thing happened," China's consul-general in Sabah, Chen Peijie, told Bernama on Sunday.
The Chinese call for an all-out search effort stemmed from concerns tied to the March 2014 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which was carrying 239 passengers and crew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The passengers included 153 Chinese nationals.
"I take the Sabah boat capsize tragedy very seriously, and I want a thorough investigation to identify the cause of the incident," Najib said in a Facebook post Monday.
Investigators had reported that 28 passengers were on board, but, late Monday, a top official in the state clarified the figure. "Our latest investigations shows only 27 tourist from China boarded the boat. So four tourists and one crewman are still missing," Ramli tweeted.
Vessel 'broke'
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), said 20 tourists and the two crewmen were plucked from the sea by passing fishing boats on Sunday after having spent close to 32 hours in rough and choppy waters near Brunei, it said in a statement.
Ahmad Puzi Kahar, head of the MMEA, said "the boat 'broke' after being hit by waves and sank" about an hour into the one-and-a-half hour trip to the island – after interrogating the crew.
Malaysian authorities have deployed 13 vessels, two aircrafts and three helicopters with neighboring Brunei deploying a vessel and an aircraft in the mission, the MMEA said on Monday.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian police said Tuesday they had picked up three men with suspected links to Islamic State (IS), while authorities in neighboring Indonesia announced the arrests of three suspects in connection with an accidental bomb blast last month in Central Java.
The three nabbed in separate raids in Kuala Lumpur and Pahang states between Jan. 27 and Jan. 29 were an unemployed man who allegedly planned a bomb attack and two security officers, including an Indonesian who worked for Malaysia Airlines, the nation's police chief said.
"Two of them are Malaysian citizens and another individual is an Indonesian with a Malaysian permanent resident status," Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement that did not name the suspects.
The arrests followed last week's announcement by Khalid that police had smashed a new cell which planned to use the eastern state of Sabah as a transit point for militants passing through on their way to joining an IS-linked group in the southern Philippines.
Four people – a Malaysian, two Bangladeshis and a Filipino – were arrested in the dismantling of the cell, but Khalid's statement on Tuesday did not say whether they were linked to the three new arrests.
Khalid described the first of the newest suspects in custody as a 38-year-old unemployed IS supporter.
"Upon arrest, the suspect admitted being a supporter of Daesh and confessed to plans to launch a bomb attack on the Mufti Islamic Department of Negeri Sembilan for failing to follow Islamic law," Khalid said, using a different term for IS.
The man was arrested Sunday in Kuala Lumpur and admitted to posting threats to kill and launch a bomb attack through his Facebook page, according to Khalid.
Security guards
The other two suspects were arrested in separate operations in the capital of Pahang, Kuantan, on Friday.
One of them was a 37-year-old Indonesian who worked for Malaysia's flag carrier, but the police chief did not say if the suspect had planned any attack involving the airline.
"The man who has links with other IS Malaysian members in Syria was planning to take his wife there to join IS," Khalid said.
An investigation revealed that the Indonesian had been to Turkey in 2013, Khalid said, but without noting whether the suspect had crossed over to Syria at the time.
Officers, Khalid said, seized an airsoft pellet gun and three copies of "Tarbiyah Jihadiyah," a book by the late Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, considered a father of the global Islamic extremist movement.
Members of the police special forces also arrested a 32-year-old security guard for a private firm at an undisclosed location in Kuantan, Pahang. Khalid said he was planning to join IS in Syria.
"The police also seized a Trusty PM4 shotgun," he said.
The three have been remanded under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012.
Including the latest arrests, Malaysian authorities have arrested 271 IS suspects since 2013, of whom 66 have since been freed, according to updated government figures.
Bomb suspects
In Indonesia, national counterterrorist police squad Densus 88 arrested the three men in Central Java province over the last two days for their alleged involvement in bomb making and concealing information about an explosion, a police official announced Tuesday.
Indonesian police arrested a 31-year-old man, identified by the initial J, in Gemolong, a town in Sragen district on Tuesday morning. At almost the same time, another man, identified as SG, 38, was arrested at his home in Gondangrejo, Karanganyar district.
On Monday evening, officers arrested a 36-year-old man identified as S, in Grobogan district, who allegedly possessed a bomb that exploded in his rented house on Dec. 11, 2016.
In Jakarta, National Police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said all three were involved in the December explosion.
"Suspected of making the bomb that exploded in the rented house," detik.com quoted Boy as saying in referring to S. He added that the other men helped him cover up the incident from neighbors and police.
No one was injured in the explosion.
Hata Wahari in Kuala Lumpur and Kusumasari Ayuningtyas in Solo, Indonesia, contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian ship carrying supplies for ethnic Rohingya affected by recent violence in Myanmar set sail Friday for Yangon and Teknaf, Bangladesh.
The Nautical Aliya, carrying 2,200 tons of food and medical supplies, set sail at 4 p.m. following a ceremony in Port Klang, about 44 km (30 miles) from Kuala Lumpur.
Prime Minister Najib Razak and opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man flagged the ship as it left the port. Najib hailed the mission as a symbol of "unity among the Ummah" or Muslims.
The ship is scheduled to arrive in Yangon Port on Tuesday and then travel to Bangladesh. It carries food supplies valued at 3.3 million ringgit ($745,000), daily need supplies valued at 1.6 million ringgit ($361,000) and clothing items valued at 500,000 ringgit ($113,000).
Nautical Aliya is also carrying 230 volunteers, including doctors, from several local and international NGOs – from Turkey, Indonesia, China, the United States, France, Thailand and the Palestinian territories.
Bangladesh changes course
Plans for the second leg of the journey appeared dashed when Foreign Minister Anifah Aman announced Friday that Bangladesh would not allow the ship to dock in Teknaf. Hours later, the foreign ministry announced that Dhaka would welcome the ship, scheduled to arrive on Feb. 10.
"The matter has now been resolved as a result of the good relations between Malaysia and Bangladesh. The Government of Malaysia expresses its appreciation to the Government of Bangladesh for its willingness to allow the food flotilla to provide humanitarian aid to the Rohingya refugees around Teknaf port," the foreign ministry said in a news release.
Initially scheduled to sail on Jan. 10, the ship's journey was postponed for diplomatic clearance after Myanmar President's office spokesman Zaw Htay warned it could be stopped or attacked by security forces.
Malaysia's application to deliver aid to the Sittwe region and surrounding areas where many Rohingya have settled was rejected by the Myanmar government. Clearance was given to Yangon Port only.
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Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is briefed on the Nautical Aliya's operating system, Feb 3, 2017. [HataWahari/BenarNews]
'Spirit of humanity'
Following the port ceremony, Najib condemned violence against ethnic Rohingya, who are deprived of basic rights in Myanmar and have been subjected to a military crackdown in western Rakhine state following the killing of nine police by militants in October.
"On the spirit of humanity and fraternity among Muslims, Malaysia is not willing to see ethnic Rohingya brothers with the same faith continue to be mistreated, killed, burned and raped," he said.
"It would not strain our ties with Myanmar. It is an assistance and contribution, it is our hope. We are doing it as a concerned government, on the basis of humanitarian spirit and principles," he said of the aid shipment.
Malaysia, Najib said, had done its utmost for ethnic Rohingya by organizing a solidarity rally, pushing the regional bloc Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to discuss the crisis, and hosting an extraordinary meeting of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers.
Since the Myanmar military launched a crackdown in Rakhine state following the Oct. 9 killing of nine Burmese border guards by suspected insurgents, security personnel have been accused of carrying out killings, rapes, acts of arson and arbitrary arrests targeting Rohingya. The government in Naypyidaw has denied those allegations.
Nearly 90 people have been killed in the violence in Rakhine, and as many as 66,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, according to U.N. figures. The new refugees join at least 300,000 Rohingya who already had taken refuge in southeastern Cox's Bazar district.
Bangladesh has refused to grant the Rohingya refugee status because it considers them citizens of Myanmar. Myanmar, meanwhile, considers those who return to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and has denied them citizenship and access to basic services for decades.
Another 90,000 Rohingya refugees are in Malaysia. Of those, 56,000 have received refugee status cards from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Kuala Lumpur.


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BENARNEWS- Many Malaysian recruits have skipped a ceremonial oath process for joining the Islamic State (IS) extremist group by choosing to pledge their loyalty through online chat applications, the country's anti-terror police chief said Thursday.
The oath of loyalty known as "Bai'ah" – Arabic for "allegiance" – only takes about a minute via apps such as Telegram, and this allows IS to boost its numbers of fighters more quickly because recruits don't have to take a traditional oath in the presence of an IS leader, said Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, head of the Royal Malaysia Police counter-terrorist special branch.
Most suspected members of the group who have been arrested by the special branch had taken the oath online without meeting their IS leader, according to the senior police official.
"In the old days, the new member had to attend a ceremony and shake hands with the leader. Today, they can do it online, using apps," Ayob said without providing figures for how many Malaysian IS members have taken this route to membership.
Since 2013, authorities in Malaysia arrested 271 people with suspected IS links, of whom 66 have since been freed, according to the latest figures from the government.
"They want to expand their terror group and that means the members will be everywhere, and, with the advance of the technology, Bai'ah can be done anywhere. They can also use it to collect data of their members across the world," Ayob said.
Farmer jailed over IS link
Concerning those arrested, a Malaysian court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced a 25-year-old farmer, Zairosfitri Jainuddin Azhar, to five years in prison for alleged links to IS.
Investigators alleged that he had pledged his support for Islamic State through a Telegram chat group account used by a local militant cell called Gagak Hitam (Black Crows).
Zairosfitri joined the 66-member chat group under the alias "zairos sijack" on March 25, 2016, according to investigators.
The Gagak Hitam group is led by Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, an IS fighter based in Syria who allegedly orchestrated a grenade attack that injured eight patrons at a Kuala Lumpur area nightclub last year.
Filipino charged
Malaysian investigators, meanwhile, have charged a Filipino man with recruiting for IS and possessing a fake identity card (MyKad), according to media reports.
The man, identified as online watch seller Nurhan Sahi Hakim, from Zamboanga, the Philippines, was sentenced in Kota Kinabalu, in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, to 30 months and fined 1,000 ringgit (U.S. $225), or an additional three months in jail if he defaulted on the fine, for admitting to possessing the fake I.D.
Nurhan is to appear in court on March 8 to face the more serious charges. Included among these, investigators charged him with allegedly recruiting another person to join IS at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport on Jan. 13.
Nurhan could face up to 30 years in prison, if convicted.


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian humanitarian mission offloaded 500 tons of aid intended for Rohingya Muslims affected by recent violence in Myanmar at a port near the country's commercial capital of Yangon on Thursday.
"It is not an easy task to reach Yangon, and praise God the first phase has been accomplished," mission chief Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim told BenarNews. "We have asked the Myanmar government that several of our volunteers be present during the distribution of aid in Rakhine."
Several dozen protestors rallied outside the port area as the mission delivered rice, instant noodles, water and hygiene kits to Myanmar's Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Win Myat Aye.
"These ships arrived in Yangon under the pretext of helping refugees," said Buddhist monk Ven Thuseitta from the Yangon chapter of the Patriotic Myanmar Monks Union.
"We can accept sincere help for refugees, but not this being exploited politically with the use of the word 'Rohingya.' We have never had Rohingya in our country, and we don't want to hear that they want to help this nonexistent group."
The country's majority-Buddhist populace views the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies that they constitute a legitimate Myanmar ethnic group.
But Myanmar's foreign affairs ministry on Thursday said the government would conduct an investigation of the crisis in Rakhine state following accusations by the United Nations that security forces committed serious human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims there.
30 disembark
The Nautical Aliya, carrying 2,200 tons of food and medical supplies, set sail Feb. 3 from Port Klang, Malaysia following a send-off by Prime Minister Najib Razak and other dignitaries.
The ship was also carrying 230 volunteers, including doctors, from Turkey, Indonesia, China, the United States, France, Thailand and the Palestinian territories. But only 30 people were allowed to disembark at Yangon Port for a handover ceremony on Thursday.
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Malaysian officials deliver aid to Myanmar's Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Win Myat Aye (far left) at Yangon Port on Feb. 9, 2017. Also seen (from right) Malaysian Consultative Council for Islamic Organization President Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid, mission chief Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim and Malaysia Deputy Foreign Minister Reezal Merican Naina Merican. [Courtesy of Food Flotilla for Myanmar]
Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia have criticized the Myanmar government over the Rakhine crisis and its treatment of the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and access to basic services although many have lived in the country for generations.
Indonesia has already sent 10 shipping containers of food, baby supplies, and clothes for Rohingya affected by the violence.
The Myanmar government initially objected to the "food flotilla" from Malaysia, which it claimed had not received official permission to enter its waters and deliver aid.
But Win Myat Aye, the social welfare, relief, and resettlement minister, called the delivery "an official arrangement between our ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] member countries."
"Malaysia has contacted us officially to send this humanitarian assistance, and we will distribute all this assistance fairly among the two communities through the Rakhine state government," he said.
The Myanmar government has said that the aid must be distributed to both Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine people alike.
Some of the food and other items will be transported to Rakhine's capital Sittwe and northern Rakhine state, while the rest will go to southern Bangladesh for distribution to tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees living in camps in Teknaf, Kutupalong, and Nayapara, Rahim said.
The Nautical Aliya was due to depart Myanmar early Friday and reach Chittagong seaport before Feb. 14, officials said. It was originally bound for Teknaf, a town closer to the refugee camps, but Bangladesh authorities said the harbor there was too shallow.
Military inquiry board
Some 66,000 Rohingya fled into Bangladesh over the past four months amid a military crackdown in western Rakhine state following the killing of nine police by militants in October.
A U.N. report issued Feb. 3 and based on interviews with more than 200 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh said the Myanmar military's actions "very likely amounted to ethnic cleansing."
Myanmar's government and military have largely dismissed allegations of abuse against the Muslim minority.
But on Thursday, a government statement announced that an inquiry board of five senior military officers would try to determine whether soldiers used excessive force and committed human rights violations in Maungdaw district of Rakhine.
"We'll have to find out how truthful the allegations are," the foreign affairs ministry's director-general Aye Aye Soe told Radio Free Asia, a sister entity of BenarNews.
A commission led by Vice President Myint Swe has been investigating reports of murder, torture, arson, and rape in northern Rakhine state since December.
In an interim report issued in January, the commission said it had found no cases of genocide or religious persecution of Rohingya Muslims living in the region. It also said its interviews of local villagers and women about rape allegations yielded insufficient evidence.
"The Rakhine state commission which is carrying out the investigations hasn't even released its [final] report yet," Aye Aye Soe said. "How can we comment on these allegations?" she said of the U.N. findings.
Hata Wahari in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- The half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was assassinated Monday at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysian and South Korean media reported Tuesday.
Kim Jong-Nam had been poisoned with a needle by two women believed to be North Korean operatives who fled in a taxi and were at large, South Korean cable network TV Chosun reported, citing South Korean government sources.
"The police have confirmed a North Korean who died at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) yesterday was Kim Jong-Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un," Malaysia's state-run Bernama news agency reported.
The report cited Fadzil Ahmat, a senior police official in Selangor state where the incident occurred. It gave no further details on the victim's identity.
"Initial police investigations found the man was at KLIA at 8 a.m. to take a flight to Macau in China scheduled at 9 a.m. yesterday. While waiting for the flight, a woman came from behind and covered his face with a cloth laced with a liquid," Fadzil was quoted as saying.
"Following this, the man was seen struggling for help and managed to obtain the assistance of a KLIA receptionist as his eyes suffered burns as a result of the liquid.
"Moments later, he was sent to the Putrajaya Hospital where he was confirmed dead."
In a statement earlier Tuesday, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said that a North Korean man identified in his passport as Kim Chol sought medical assistance at the low-cost terminal of KLIA and had died en route to hospital on Monday.
"Investigation is in progress and a post mortem examination request has been made to ascertain the cause of death," he said.
An official at the Forensic Department of Putrajaya Hospital told BenarNews that the post-mortem examination would be carried out Wednesday morning.
Alias?
The deceased Korean was holding a passport with the number 836410070 and a birthdate of June 10, 1970, Khalid said.
Kim Jong-Nam is in his mid-40s and has been known to travel under a different name, according to reports.
South Korea's foreign ministry said it could not confirm the reports, and the country's intelligence agency could not immediately be reached for comment.
Malaysia is among a small list of countries with close relations with the communist regime in Pyongyang under global sanctions over its illegal nuclear weapons drives and ballistic missile launches, the latest of which took place at the weekend.
South Korea's national news agency, Yonhap, quoted a source as saying that agents of the North's spy agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, carried out the assassination on Monday by taking advantage of a security loophole between Jong-Nam's bodyguards and Malaysian police at the airport, AFP said.
Malaysian police accounts of the death were based on CCTV footage, according to Malaysian newspaper Berita Harian.
"Based on initial investigations, we have a woman who appears to be Korean approaching the victim before suddenly covering his head," Selangor police chief Abdul Samah Mat Mat told Berita Harian on Monday night.
"At this moment, police are examining the CCTV footage to get a clear picture of the suspect before she acted," he said.
The suspect and another woman fled from the scene, Mat said.
"At this moment we cannot give any clear motive including whether this case is linked to conflicts inside or outside of North Korea," he said.
"Our focus is to identify the suspect involved and to hunt down this suspect for further measures in accordance with the laws of this country."
The exact cause of death had not been identified because a post-mortem examination was not yet complete, he said.
The incident happened at 8 a.m. Monday when the victim was in the departure hall of KLIA2, and planning to board a flight to Macau after arriving in Malaysia on Feb. 6, Berita Harian reported.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian police said Wednesday they had arrested a woman carrying a Vietnamese passport and were looking for five other suspects in the alleged murder of the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
The arrest took place at the budget terminal of Kuala Lumpur's international airport where, two days earlier, a man whom South Korean officials have identified as Kim Jong-Nam died en route to hospital after a woman reportedly attacked him with a chemical spray.
"On 15 February 2017 at about 0820 hours, the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) arrested a female suspect at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA 2). She was in a possession of a Socialist Republic of Vietnam travel document," said a statement issued by Malaysian police.
The body of the victim was taken early Wednesday to Kuala Lumpur General Hospital, the country's largest and best-equipped government hospital, where an autopsy was conducted, a police source told BenarNews.
Sepang district police chief Abdul Aziz Ali said the post-mortem on the deceased had been completed but declined to comment on the cause of death.
An official close to the investigation told BenarNews that North Korea had requested the Malaysian government to release the victim's body without a post-mortem.
"But we turned down their request," the official familiar with the case said.
Another police official said Malaysian police would pursue their investigation and release the body only after a post-mortem and related procedures were completed.
"[The] incident happened here so we have to follow the rule of the land," the officer said.
Malaysian authorities have not officially confirmed whether Kim Jong-Nam was the man who died in Monday's airport attack. So far, they have identified the victim from his passport as a 46-year-old North Korean man, Kim Chol.
 
Hunt on for other suspects
The suspect in custody, 28-year-old Doan Thi Huong according to her passport, was "positively identified from the CCTV footage at the airport" and was alone at the time of her arrest, the statement said.
Apart from her, Malaysian authorities were searching for "several more" suspects, including a female accomplice and four men allegedly connected to the murder, The Star newspaper quoted Deputy Police Inspector-General Noor Rashid Ibrahim as saying.
The arrested suspect is to appear on Thursday morning for a remand order at the Shah Alam Magistrates Court in Selangor, according to a police official.
'Murdered man is Kim Jong-Nam': Seoul
On Wednesday, South Korean officials said they had no doubt the victim was the estranged brother of the North Korean leader.
"Our government is certain that the murdered man is Kim Jong-Nam," said Chung Joon-Hee, a spokesman for Seoul's unification ministry that handles inter-Korea affairs.
"If the murder of Kim Jong-Nam was confirmed to be committed by the North Korean regime, that would clearly depict the brutality and inhumanity of the Kim Jong-Un regime," South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, the country's acting president, told a meeting of security officials in Seoul.
A U.S. government source told Reuters that Washington strongly believed that North Korean agents carried out the assassination.
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An earlier version gave wrong information about the location of the magistrates court.


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BENARNEWS- China has been asked to claim the body of the half-brother of North Korea's leader who was allegedly murdered at an airport in Malaysia, according to a source Thursday.
The second wife of Kim Jong-Nam had asked the Chinese government through its embassy in Kuala Lumpur to claim his body following an autopsy, the source told BenarNews.
Kim died en route to hospital after reportedly telling medical personnel that a woman had attacked him with a chemical spray at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) on Monday.
At the time, he was about to board a flight to the Chinese territory of Macau, where, according to South Korean media reports, he had been living with Lee Hye Kyong under Beijing's protection.
"We have been informed that the family in Macau has made a request to claim the body," the source said, adding that the body would only be released after a full post-mortem report was prepared stating the cause of death.
There was no immediate comment from the Chinese embassy, but a foreign ministry spokesman said Wednesday in Beijing that China was aware of reports of the death and was closely following developments.
Standing order
South Korea's intelligence agency says female agents working for Pyongyang poisoned Kim as he was preparing to board a flight. U.S. government sources also strongly believe that North Korean agents murdered Kim Jong-Nam.
Kim had pleaded with his half-brother and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un five years ago to withdraw a standing order for his assassination, Seoul's intelligence agency had said. The leader allegedly believed his brother could be used in any overthrow of his regime.
North Korea has not made any public comment over Kim's death.
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday that Kim's body would be released to the next-of-kin or the North Korean embassy after all police and medical procedures had been completed.
On Wednesday, an official close to the investigation told BenarNews that North Korea had requested the Malaysian government to release the victim's body without a post-mortem.
"But we turned down their request," the official said.
It is not clear how Malaysia would handle dueling demands for the body amid the assassination claims.
More arrests
On Thursday, police announced the arrest of two more suspects in the case, after nabbing a woman identified as 28-year-old Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam a day earlier.
Police said they had arrested another suspect and named her as Siti Aishah, 25, of Serang, Indonesia. They did not disclose the location of the arrest.
Police later said they had arrested Siti's boyfriend, 26-year-old Malaysian Muhammad Farid Bin Jalaluddin, "to assist in investigations."
Separately, Zahid confirmed that the man allegedly assassinated at the airport was Kim Jong-Nam.
"His identity was confirmed from the passport that we compared with the document issued by the Embassy of North Korea and by the identity issued by the embassy," Malaysian state news agency Bernama quoted him as saying.
The victim was carrying a North Korean passport bearing the name Kim Chol when he was attacked.  The passport was authentic, Zahid said Thursday.
An autopsy has been completed at Kuala Lumpur General Hospital but authorities have yet to announce the findings.
"For DNA confirmation, that will need time, let the police and the medical experts confirm this," Zahid was quoted as saying in a New Straits Times report.
Safety assurance
Zahid said the death had not affected bilateral ties between North Korea and Malaysia, according to the Bernama report. He defended safety at airports in Malaysia and said this had been discussed at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Malaysia is among a small list of countries with close relations with the communist regime in Pyongyang under global sanctions over its illegal nuclear weapons drives and ballistic missile launches, the latest of which took place on Sunday.
"Ahmad Zahid also gave an assurance on the safety at Malaysia's airports, including KL International Airport 2, saying it was at the highest level and that the death was an isolated case," Bernama reported.
"Ahmad Zahid said that at yesterday's Cabinet meeting, it was stressed that the government would protect visitors to the country and would not compromise on any security issue created by Malaysians or foreigners," the report said.
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A Malaysian forensics official walks out of the Forensics wing at Kuala Lumpur General Hospital, where the body of a North Korean man believed to be Kim Jong-Nam was being kept, Feb. 16, 2017. [AFP]


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BENARNEWS- North Korea lambasted Malaysia on Friday for refusing to release the body of its leader Kim Jong-Un's half-brother who was allegedly murdered there this week, adding a new twist to an already sensational case.

Pyongyang said it would not accept any result of a post-mortem conducted by Malaysian authorities on Kim Jong-Nam's body, accusing Kuala Lumpur of "colluding with the hostile forces towards us who are desperate to harm us of malice," clearly referring to rival South Korea.

In a statement outside the morgue of the main hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, North Korean Ambassador Kang Chol, appearing furious, accused Malaysia of "trying to conceal something" over the case.

This was the first reaction from North Korea following the death of Kim Jong-Nam in Malaysia on Monday.

Kim died en route to hospital after reportedly telling medical personnel that a woman had attacked him with a chemical spray at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2).

Kang Chol's statement came after Malaysia said Friday that it would not release the body until a family member provided a DNA sample to prove the identity of Kim Jong-Nam, who the South Korean and U.S. governments believe was murdered by North Korean government agents.

The angry message delivered by the ambassador was noteworthy because Malaysia is among a handful of countries with long-standing bilateral relations with the communist regime in Pyongyang, which has been isolated internationally through sanctions over its illegal nuclear weapons program and ballistic missile launches.

Impoverished North Korea has carried out repeated missile launches despite the sanctions. In 2016, it conducted two nuclear tests in a bid to develop a weapons system capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. Last weekend, North Korea carried out another test of a ballistic missile that was condemned by the U.N. Security Council.

Consular Protection

Kang Chol's statement did not mention Kim Jong-Nam by name but Malaysian authorities had confirmed his identity two days after the killing.

He read about half the statement and then one of his aides gave the statement to the press, reporters at the scene said. 

The envoy said the Malaysian side had initially informed his embassy that a North Korean citizen had died due to a heart attack while being taken to hospital and had requested the embassy to confirm that he was indeed a North Korean citizen. 

He said that after the embassy confirmed it, the Malaysian authorities wanted to conduct a post-mortem on Kim "that we rejected because he is a diplomatic passport holder and our citizen who is under the consular protection of the DPRK [North Korea's official name]."

He charged that the Malaysian side "forced the postmortem without our permission and witnessing" and that North Korea would "categorically reject the result of the postmortem conducted unilaterally excluding our attendance."

"This is the culmination of the violation of the human rights of and infringing upon our citizen disregarding the elementary international laws and the consular laws."

'Release the body without further delay'

Kang Chol said he met a senior Malaysian police officer and "strongly demanded him to release the body without further delay" but that the request was rejected.

He said the officer had raised an issue "which has nothing to do with clarification of the cause of death," apparently referring to a request for a DNA sample to prove the identity of Kim Jong-Nam.

"This strongly suggests that the Malaysian side is trying to conceal something which needs more time and deceive us and that they are colluding with the hostile forces towards us who are desperate to harm us of malice," he said.

He said the Malaysian moves might be dictated by "someone else," suggesting rival South Korea.

South Korea has pointed the finger of blame over Kim Jong-Nam's death at North Korea, citing a "standing order" from Kim Jong-Un to kill his sibling and a failed assassination bid in 2012 after he criticized the regime.

Japanese journalist Yoji Gomi, a former Tokyo Shimbun editor who got closer to Kim Jong-Nam than most reporters, told BenarNews sister entity Radio Free Asia this week that Kim Jong-Un may have given an order to assassinate his half-brother.

"Although Kim Jong-Un's approval of an assassination is possible, I think it is also possible that the regime's high-ranking officials close to Kim Jong-Un may have acted out of loyalty and internal competition," he said. 

"As you know, many of them are getting purged or dismissed, and Kim Jong-Nam was still an influential person, so there is a possibility that the people who decided to get rid of Kim Jong-Nam were afraid of Kim Jong-Un."

Malaysian police have arrested two women – one holding a Vietnamese passport and the other an Indonesian document – as well as a Malaysian man as part of investigations into the death.

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BENARNEWS- A woman suspected of taking part in the assassination of the half-brother of Kim Jong-Un changed her appearance and her hotel several times before she was arrested, hotel staff said Friday. 

Meanwhile, Indonesian officials said a second woman in Malaysian custody, Indonesian national Siti Aisyah, was duped into helping carry out the hit by being told she was participating in a reality TV prank filmed with hidden cameras, according to reports.

Details of the two female suspects emerged Friday as Malaysian police pursued their investigation into the sudden death on Monday of Kim Jong-Nam, the half-sibling of Pyongyang regime leader Kim Jong-Un.
Late on Friday, police arrested the first North Korean suspect in the case, in Selangor state. A police statement named him as as Ri Jong Chol, 46, but gave no further details.
Kim died en route to hospital after reportedly telling medical personnel that a woman had attacked him with a chemical spray at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) as he was waiting to board a flight to Macau that day. 

Malaysian officials have yet to release an autopsy report stating the cause of death. South Korea has pointed the finger at North Korea, citing a "standing order" from Kim Jong-Un to kill his sibling and a failed assassination bid in 2012 after he criticized the regime.

In a tirade outside the Malaysian morgue where the body is being held, North Korean Ambassador Kang Chol lambasted officials on Friday for refusing to release it and said Pyongyang would not accept the result of a post-mortem conducted by Malaysian authorities. 

Armed with a teddy bear

Malaysian police said both women had been positively identified from CCTV footage taken at the airport around the time of Kim's death. A Malaysian man described as Siti's boyfriend was also arrested, and police were searching for at least three other male suspects.
Vietnam has not commented on reports that the first suspect arrested in the case was carrying a passport identifying her as 28-year-old Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam.

She had checked into three hotels in the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Sepang – not far from the airport – between Feb. 11 and Feb. 15, when she was arrested, employees at the hotels said.

She changed her appearance and was seen wearing a surgical mask, according to interviews with hotel receptionists. At one of the hotels, the woman borrowed a pair of scissors from staff that she used to cut her shoulder-length hair down to a bob.

Staffers said she checked in carrying bags and a stuffed animal half her size.

"She came in with a very big teddy bear, and two bags," said an employee of one of the hotels.

She stayed at the first hotel from Feb. 11 to 12, at the next one from Feb. 12 to 13 – the day of the killing – and the last one from the 13th to the 15th, according to interviews with receptionists.

A supervisor at the third hotel, who asked not to be identified, said the woman "changed her contact lenses color every day" and covered her face indoors with a surgical mask, which she took off when she went out in the evenings to get food.

The supervisor described the woman as "tall and pretty."

"I thought she was Korean until she produced her passport," the supervisor said.

No laughing matter

The Vietnamese passport holder was wearing a white shirt emblazoned with "LOL" when she was caught by a CCTV camera at the airport terminal on the day of the killing.

On Friday, Indonesian police chief Tito Karnavian told reporters that Siti Aisyah was a victim of people who fooled her into taking part in the assassination.

Citing information relayed by Malaysian police, Tito said Siti had been paid along with another woman to pull off several pranks – which called for ambushing a man and spraying water in his face – for a show similar to "Just for Laughs," a popular TV program that uses concealed cameras, the Associated Press reported.

"Such an action was done three or four times and they were given a few dollars for it, and with the last target, Kim Jong-Nam, allegedly there were dangerous materials in the sprayer," Tito said, according to AP.

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla backed up the claim that Siti had been duped.

Kalla said Siti was "a victim of manipulation." 

"Kim ... [was] a victim of a victim because Aisyah was also a victim," Kalla told reporters in Jakarta, brushing off allegations that she was a North Korean operative.

"If she were an agent, I think she would have disappeared without a trace," he said, adding that the Indonesian government would provide her with legal aid.

Siti is a divorced mother of a 7-year-old boy who lives with his paternal grandparents in Tambora, West Jakarta, according to her former father-in-law, Lian Kiong.

Lian Kiong defended her over the reports, denying that she could have been involved in such a cloak-and-dagger crime.

"I don't believe it," he told BenarNews.

He described his former daughter-in-law as polite and a good person. He last saw her on Jan. 28, when Aisyah came with her mother to visit her son, and she seemed "normal," he said.

"If you saw her, she'd just smile," a former neighbor, Damayanti, told BenarNews about Siti, who once worked at a garment factory in Tambora, ironing and folding jackets.
Fadzil Aziz in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian police are seeking four North Korean suspects who left the country on the day the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was murdered, a top police official told a press conference on Sunday.
The four men arrived in Malaysia between Jan. 31and Feb. 7, Royal Malaysia Police Deputy Inspector-General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim said at police headquarters in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur.
"We can confirm that the four left the country on Feb. 13, the same day the incident happened," he said. "We are cooperating with Interpol and relevant bodies in the region to track them down."
Police identified the four as Rhi Ji Hyon, 33, Hong Song Hac, 34, O Jong Gil, 55 and Ri Jae Nam, 57.
According to a source close to the investigation, the four men were already back in Pyongyang, having flown first to Jakarta from Kuala Lumpur.
"From Jakarta, they flew to Dubai and stopped over at Vladivostok before heading for their last destination, North Korea. They arrived in Pyongyang Feb. 17," the source told BenarNews, speaking on condition of anonymity. Vladivostok is a city in Russia.
Four in custody
Kim Jong-Nam was declared dead at Putrajaya Hospital on Feb. 13 after being transferred from Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 where he sought medical assistance at the airport service counter.
Kim, who was supposed to take an Air Asia flight to Macau at 10:50 a.m. on that day, was approached by two women who allegedly sprayed liquid at him and wiped his face with cloth.
Four men were captured on closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera observing the assassination from a nearby restaurant, according to the New Straits Times, a Malaysian newspaper.
Police earlier this week arrested a woman named as Doan Thi Huong, 28, of Vietnam; Indonesian national Siti Aisyah, 25; and Malaysian national Muhammad Farid Bin Jalaluddin, 26, identified by police as Siti's boyfriend. Both women were positively identified from CCTV footage taken at the airport around the time of Kim's death.
Malaysian police arrested a North Korean suspect, Ri Jong Chol, 47, late on Friday, bringing the number of suspects in custody to four.
In Sunday's press conference, Malaysian authorities disclosed that Doan arrived in Malaysia on Feb. 4 from Hanoi, while Siti two days earlier from Batam, Indonesia, but the two had been working in Malaysia previously at an entertainment outlet and spa center, respectively.
Police are looking for three other suspects to assist the investigation, a North Korean national and two others whose identities were still being established, Noor Rashid said.
In Seoul, a top official said Sunday's announcement showed that North Korean agents carried out the assassination.
"We believe the North Korean regime is behind this incident considering five suspects are North Koreans," Jeong Joon-hee, spokesman at the South Korea's Unification Ministry that handles inter-Korea affairs, told a briefing, according to Reuters.
South Korea had already pointed the finger of blame at North Korea, citing a "standing order" from Kim Jong Un to kill his sibling and a failed assassination bid in 2012 after he criticized the regime.
Deadline for next-of-kin
Malaysian officials had yet to release an autopsy report stating the cause of death. Results of pathology and toxicology tests are still pending, Noor Rashid said. But he confirmed that police were treating the incident as a murder case.
"At the moment, I cannot say the cause of death," he said.
Noor Rashid said Malaysian police were looking for Kim's next-of-kin to identify the body, and gave relatives two weeks to come forward.
"As for now, he is identified as Kim Chol, aged 47, from North Korea, based on his passport found on the deceased," the official said.
"The most eligible to identify the body physically is the next-of-kin. I have given a timeframe, and if they still don't come forward, then we will have to look for the next option."
North Korea lambasted Malaysia on Friday for refusing to release the body, and said it would not accept the results of any post-mortem conducted by Malaysian authorities.
In a statement outside the morgue of the main hospital in Kuala Lumpur, North Korean Ambassador Kang Chol, appearing furious, accused Malaysia of "trying to conceal something" and "colluding with the hostile forces" over the case.
"They can say whatever that they want to say. We are just following our procedures and regulations," Noor Rashid said Sunday.
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A Royal Malaysia Police handout picture shows four suspects arrested thus far in the killing of Kim Jong-Nam: Malaysian Muhammad Farid Bin Jalaluddin (top L), Doan Thi Huong (top R) of Vietnam, North Korean Ri Jong Chol (bottom L) and Siti Aisyah of Indonesia (bottom R). [AFP]



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BENARNEWS- Malaysia recalled its ambassador to North Korea on Monday and traded angry words with Pyongyang, amid rising bilateral tensions over Kuala Lumpur's refusal to release the body of Kim Jong-Un's half-brother following his apparent assassination in Malaysia a week ago.
Malaysia's foreign ministry also summoned the North Korean envoy to explain his recent criticism of the Malaysian government, but Ambassador Kang Chol issued a fresh attack, demanding a joint investigation into the death which he claimed had been politicized.
"To date we have been respecting the Malaysian police and waiting with patience for the fair and accurate investigation result. On the contrary, they pinned the suspicion on us and targeted the investigation against us," said a five-page statement read by Kang Chol outside the North Korean embassy shortly after he answered the summons.
"As far as all the happenings clearly show that this incident is politicized by Malaysian in collusion with the South Korea, we officially inform the international community that we suggest the joint investigation on this incident for its clear clarification."
As the diplomatic feud escalated, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman spoke out late Monday, saying the North Korean allegations were "culled from delusions, lies and half-truths," and that police were conducting an impartial investigation.
"Any suggestion to the contrary is deeply insulting to Malaysia, as is the suggestion that Malaysia is in collusion with any foreign government," Aman added.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak commented on the issue for the first time, defending the professionalism of the national police. "We have no reason why we would want to do something that paints the North Koreans in a bad light," Najib said.
"But we will be objective and we expect them to understand that we apply the rule of law in Malaysia," Najib said, as quoted by the New Straits Times, a Malaysian news outlet.
"The Malaysian Government takes very seriously any unfounded attempt to tarnish its reputation," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement earlier Monday.
"The Malaysian Ambassador in Pyongyang has been recalled to Kuala Lumpur for consultations."
'A false remark'
A man whom Malaysian officials have identified as Kim Jong-Nam died en route to hospital on Feb. 13 after reportedly telling medical personnel that a woman had attacked him with a chemical spray at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2.
Malaysian officials have repeatedly stated that they would identify a cause of death and hand the deceased man's body to the next of kin "in accordance with existing Malaysian laws and procedures."
Malaysia is among a small list of countries with close relations with the communist regime in Pyongyang, which is under global sanctions over its illegal nuclear weapons drives and ballistic missile launches, the latest of which took place on Feb. 12.
South Korea has blamed North Korea for Kim's death, citing a "standing order" from leader Kim Jong-Un to kill his older sibling and a failed assassination bid in 2012 after his half-brother criticized the regime.
Malaysia has four suspects in custody but announced Sunday that four North Korean men wanted in connection with the killing had left Malaysia the day it happened.
In his statement read out to reporters Monday, Kang Chol said, "we cannot trust the investigation by the Malaysian police."
He also accused Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of making a "false remark" when he identified the dead man as the elder half-brother of Kim Jong-Un. The ambassador's statement, however, did not mention Kim Jong-Nam by name.
"In the morning on 18th February, we submitted the official document that we did not know any other name except Kim Chol as written in the passport to the Malaysian police side in the Embassy. Then how could the deputy prime minister make a false remark one day before our submission?" the statement said.
On Feb. 17, Zahid confirmed that the man allegedly assassinated at the airport was Kim Jong-Nam.
"His identity was confirmed from the passport that we compared with the document issued by the Embassy of North Korea and by the identity issued by the embassy," Malaysian state news agency Bernama quoted him as saying.
Malaysian officials had yet to release an autopsy report stating the cause of death. Results of pathology and toxicology tests are still pending, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim told a press conference on Sunday.
"At the moment, I cannot say the cause of death," he said. But he confirmed that police were treating the incident as a murder case.
He said Malaysian police were looking for Kim's next-of-kin to identify the body and gave relatives two weeks to come forward


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BENARNEWS- The half-brother of Kim Jong-Un did not die of a heart attack and his body showed no puncture wounds, but laboratory test results are needed to establish a cause of death, Malaysian health officials said Tuesday in announcing preliminary autopsy results.
Malaysian officials have identified the man who died in an alleged assassination last week at a Kuala Lumpur area airport as Kim Jong-Nam, the estranged older sibling of the North Korean leader. South Korean news reports suggested then that assassins had used needles to poison him.
"No evidence of a heart attack. There was also nothing obvious to suggest any puncture marks," Noor Hisham Abdullah, Malaysia's director-general of health, told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Meanwhile, Malaysian officials did not confirm reports that Kim Jong-Nam's son, Kim Han-Sol, had arrived in the country from Macau to claim his father's remains. In other developments, Malaysian police Tuesday deployed commandos to guard the morgue at Kuala Lumpur Hospital where Kim's body is being kept, according to reports.
Since the Feb. 13 death, Malaysia's government has rejected requests by the North Korean embassy to hand over the dead man's body to Pyongyang without performing an autopsy. Kuala Lumpur has insisted that next-of-kin first come forward to identify the body and give DNA samples, saying it would release the remains to next-of-kin "in accordance with Malaysian laws and procedures."
The autopsy on Kim's body was done on Feb. 16 but, so far, health officials have not been able to determine the cause of death, Noor Hisham said.
Results of a full post-mortem report are due out later this week, after laboratories send back analyses of tests, according to Noor Hisham, who denied reports that a second autopsy had been done because a first one was inconclusive.
"Until we have that report we can't say what it is," he said.
Authorities will pursue other ways to positively identify the body if next-of-kin fail to show up within 14 days, Noor Hisham added.
"Other ways of identifying the body include dental records to match the victim and external examination [of distinctive marks] like scars, moles and previous surgeries," he said.
Mounting dispute
Kim Jong-Nam died while being rushed to a local hospital, after complaining to medical personnel at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) that he felt ill after a woman attacked him with a chemical spray as he prepared to board a flight to Macau.
He was pronounced dead on arrival at Putrajaya Hospital on Feb. 13.
Police have arrested four suspects, including a North Korean national, and said four North Koreans wanted in connection with the case had fled the country on the day Kim died.
Malaysia's refusal to hand over the body to North Korea has led to a diplomatic row, with Pyongyang's ambassador publicly questioning the integrity of the Malaysian investigation and accusing Kuala Lumpur of colluding with South Korea in politicizing the case.
Malaysia on Monday recalled its ambassador to Pyongyang, who was due to fly home the next day.
On Tuesday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak described the comments made by North Korean envoy Kang Chol as "diplomatically rude."


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BENARNEWS- Investigators want to question a North Korean diplomat stationed in Kuala Lumpur in connection with the death of Kim Jong Un's half-brother, in which two female suspects attacked him with a toxin at a local airport, Malaysia's police chief said Wednesday.
Malaysian police have sent a request asking the embassy to allow investigators to interrogate Hyon Kwang Song, 44, a second secretary at Pyongyang's diplomatic mission, as well as Kim Uk Il, 37, an employee of North Korean state-run airline Air Koryo, Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Both men were seen in CCTV footage taken at the airport on the day of the attack on Kim Jong Nam, he said.
"We submitted the request today. If they refuse to cooperate, then we will issue warrants of arrest on both of them," Khalid said, adding, "We have written to the embassy to allow us to interview both of them. We hope that the NK embassy will cooperate with us."
Khalid also alleged the two women in custody – an Indonesian national and a woman whom Malaysian police have identified as a Vietnamese passport holder – were both trained to handle toxins and had practiced at two Kuala Lumpur area shopping malls before carrying out the Feb. 13 attack.
The diplomat and Air Koryo employee who police are looking for are still in Malaysia, Khalid said. Police also are searching for a third North Korean man, identified as Ri Ji U (also known as James), and whose image was also caught by a CCTV camera on Feb. 13 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2), where Kim was allegedly attacked as he prepared to board a flight to Macau. Police believe that all three North Korean suspects are still in Malaysia, Khalid said.
Four other North Koreans, whom local authorities identified over the weekend and were looking for in connection with the case, left Malaysia on the day of Kim's death, according to police. Kim died en route to a hospital after complaining to medical staff at the airport that he felt ill after a woman had attacked him with a chemical spray.
"We believe these four are heavily involved in the attack. We have got nothing from the embassy at the moment. We are seeking their help to trace the four and send them back to us," Khalid said.
'They are trained'
Commenting on the two women in custody, the police chief rejected reports that either had been duped into thinking they were playing a prank on Kim that was being filmed for a reality TV show.
They were trained to use a toxin and had been instructed to wash their hands immediately after the attack, Khalid said.
"They are trained. This is not something like shooting a movie," he said.
"The Indonesian woman sprayed and then the Vietnam woman wiped [a cloth over Kim's face], and then they are instructed to clean their hands," Khalid said.
The two had practiced for the attack at the KLCC and Pavilion shopping centers in Kuala Lumpur, he alleged.
"We will be applying for their remands to be extended today for the two women for another seven days. The male, boyfriend of the Indonesian woman will be released today by police bond," Khalid said.
Malaysian police have identified the two women as Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam and Siti Aisyah of Indonesia. Apart from Siti's boyfriend, whom police have identified as Malaysian citizen Muhammad Farid Bin Jalaluddin, the Malaysian authorities have a North Korean man in custody, Ri Jong Chol.
'Not a poison': North Korea
Following Khalid's press conference, Pyongyang's embassy in Kuala Lumpur issued a statement demanding police free the two women and the North Korean national.
"[T]hey should immediately release the innocent females from Vietnam and Indonesia as well as a DPRK citizen, Ri Jong Chol who was arrested unreasonably."
The statement, the third set of comments issued by the embassy in connection with the Kim case since last week, reiterated accusations that Malaysia was colluding with South Korea over this matter and again cast doubt on the integrity of the Malaysian police investigation.
"Malaysia has been conducting the investigation based on the CCTV footage that was released to the public and the delusion that the female suspects had daubed poison on the victim's face with their own hands. Then how is it possible that these female suspects could be alive after the incident?" the embassy said in its latest statement, which did not identify the half-brother of North Korea's leader by name.
"This means that the liquid they daubed for a joke is not a poison and that there is another cause of death for the deceased," the statement said.
Malaysian officials have not released a post-mortem report stating the cause of death.


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BENARNEWS- Diplomatic fallout from the alleged assassination in Malaysia of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's half-brother is testing long-standing bilateral relations and raising questions about whether Kuala Lumpur will cut off ties with Pyongyang.
Some analysts speculate that Malaysia could expel North Korean diplomats in Kuala Lumpur if Pyongyang refuses to hand over a diplomat sought by police for questioning over the killing of Kim Jong Nam.
"I don't expect the relationship to be severed, but a form of downgrade looks inevitable at this stage. I suspect the Malaysian authorities are looking into implementing international sanctions with greater vigor," Shahriman Lockman, a senior analyst at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia (ISIS), told BenarNews.
Malaysia already has recalled its ambassador from Pyongyang after government sources in the United States and South Korea alleged North Korean agents were behind the assassination of Jong Nam at a Kuala Lumpur area airport on Feb. 13.
At a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, Malaysian Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar could not confirm whether Pyongyang had carried out the assassination, but said, "what is clear is that those involved are North Koreans."
He announced that authorities had asked the embassy on Wednesday to hand over Second Secretary Hyon Kwang Song and North Korean state-airline employee Kim Uk Il – both of whom are believed to be in Malaysia and wanted in connection with the case.
"Malaysia must take into account all the aspects before taking further action. The worst-case scenario is we can cut diplomatic ties with North Korea. However, it is too early to predict this," Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani, a professor of international relations at Universiti Utara Malaysia, told BenarNews last week before a bilateral row broke out.
Bilateral trade
The two Asian countries established diplomatic relations in 1973 and Malaysia remains one of North Korea's relatively few trading partners despite the communist state's international isolation through sanctions over its illegal nuclear weapons program and ballistic missile tests.
The volume of bilateral trade in 2015 was relatively small – totaling nearly 23 million ringgit (U.S. $5 million), according to The Star. Malaysia exports rubber, palm oil and petroleum to North Korea, which sends iron, steel and chemical products to the Southeast Asian nation, the newspaper reported.
North Koreans and Malaysians also are able to visit their respective countries without a visa.
Those ties have taken a hit since a war of words erupted in the past five days between the North Korean ambassador to Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia's government over how local authorities have handled an investigation into the death of Jong Nam.
Although North Korea has not yet matched Malaysia by recalling its ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian government might be compelled to pressure Pyongyang into handing over the diplomat, according to Shahriman.
It could do this, he said, by invoking a provision of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2321 that allows member-states "to reduce the number if staff at [North Korean] diplomatic missions and consular posts" – in other words, expel some of Pyongyang's embassy personnel.
"If North Korea doesn't lift the diplomatic immunity of one of their diplomats who's being sought by Malaysian police in connection with Kim Jong Nam's assassination, Malaysia would probably find it compelling to invoke such kinds of provisions," Shahriman said.
Angry words
Bilateral ties have been "somewhat hurt" within the past week, particularly following comments made by Pyongyang envoy Kang Chol, said Hoo Chiew Ping, a North Korea policy analyst at the National University of Malaysia.
Amid a refusal by Malaysian officials to hand over Jong Nam's remains to North Korea without a post-mortem and their insistence that his next-of-kin give the authorities DNA samples as part of their investigation, the ambassador publicly accused Malaysian authorities of conducting an unprofessional investigation and colluding with Seoul over Jong Nam's killing.
In his public comments, however, the ambassador never referred to the dead man as Kim Jong Nam, the estranged older sibling of North Korea's leader. The envoy identified the dead man as Kim Chol, a holder of a North Korean diplomatic passport.
"But his reaction is understandable due to the need to express the North Korean regime's position on the issue: their need to secure a dead North Korean national, despite refusing to acknowledge [to whom] the body belongs or [whether the person is] related to the regime's leader, Kim Jong Un," Hoo told BenarNews.
"If the North Korean ambassador does not say anything that is in line with the regime's expectations or even slightly recognizing Kim Chol as Kim Jong Nam, his life could be in danger," she told BenarNews.
Azmi Hassan, a Malaysian professor of geo-politics, said Kuala Lumpur so far had demonstrated that it was giving higher priority to solving the case, even if this meant pushing the limits of its 44-year-old bilateral ties with Pyongyang.
"But when the inspector general of police named a suspect who is a diplomat of the embassy, it shows Malaysia's determination to find out the culprit without any regard to diplomatic relations," Azmi told BenarNews.
"When the sovereignty of a country is challenged, diplomatic interests becomes less important."
Fadzil Aziz and Hata Wahari contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Jakarta said Thursday it was pressing Malaysian authorities to give consular access to an Indonesian woman suspected in the killing of the half-brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un.
Siti Aisyah, 25, is one of two women in Malaysian custody and whom police suspect of having used their hands to smear a toxin on victim Kim Jong Nam at a Kuala Lumpur area airport on Feb. 13. He died later that day after complaining to airport medical staff that he felt ill after a woman had attacked him with a chemical.
"We will continue to urge Malaysia to grant us consular access," Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir told reporters in Jakarta.
"After that ... we will then be able to take steps to protect that Indonesian citizen,  and decide what legal guidance to provide,"  he said.
Aisyah allegedly spread the substance on Kim Jong Nam's face and the second woman, identified by Malaysian police as Doan Thi Huong, a Vietnamese, then swabbed his face with a cloth before both suspects walked away and washed their hands, according to Malaysian Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar.
But while international suspicion has fallen on government agents from Pyongyang as being behind Kim Jong Nam's alleged assassination, Malaysian police have named eight North Koreans, including a second secretary at Pyongyang's embassy in Kuala Lumpur as suspects.
Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledged Monday that Doan held a Vietnamese passport but it said consular staff in Malaysia were trying to contact her and verify her identification, according to state-run Viet Nam News.
Against police procedures: Ambassador
Police regulations in Malaysia do not allow a suspect to meet with anyone while an investigation is under way, Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia  Zahrain Muhamed Hashim told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday.
"It's very important that the police investigation not be disturbed or interfered with by any party, and it usually takes a long time," he said.
He acknowledged that consular access must be given to foreign nationals caught up in legal cases, but said this would be provided after the police investigation is complete.
"Remember, this case is still an investigation. When the investigation is finished, it's up to Malaysian police whether to charge the suspect or release them due to lack of evidence," Zahrain said.
"I believe Aisyah's safety and welfare will be protected in Malaysia, just as it would be in Indonesia," the ambassador said.
Apart from the two women in custody, Malaysian police are holding one of the eight North Koreans identified in connection with the case, and late Wednesday they released a Malaysian man who was said to be Aiysah's boyfriend.
'You should cooperate'
A diplomatic row over the police probe into Kim Jong Nam's killing ensued between Kuala Lumpur and Pyongyang, after Malaysian officials refused to hand over his body to North Korean authorities without conducting a post-mortem.
Malaysia had also asked Kim Jong Nam's next-of-kin to come forward and provide DNA samples for official confirmation. An autopsy was done on Feb. 16, but forensics officials have not yet released a full post-mortem report pinpointing the cause of his death.
On Thursday in Malaysia, Police Chief Khalid denied reports that investigators had traveled to Macau – where Kim Jong Nam lived and had a family – to collect DNA from his next-of-kin.
"Not true. We have not sent any team to retrieve any DNA samples or received any sample from any country," Khalid told journalists in Kuala Lumpur.
A day earlier, the police chief told a news conference that his department had requested the North Korean embassy to hand over one of its diplomats stationed in Kuala Lumpur along with employee of North Korean state airline for questioning in the case.
Khalid suggested Thursday that Malaysian police would follow protocols and respect the diplomatic immunity of Second Secretary Hyon Kwang Song.
"If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to be afraid of. You should cooperate," Khalid said.
Outside the North Korean embassy on Thursday, members of the youth wing of Malaysia's main ruling party staged a protest against Pyongyang, which has had long-standing ties with their country.
"We urge the government of Malaysia to reconsider our diplomatic ties with North Korea," Khairul Azwan, the vice chief of the youth wing of the United Malays National Organization said in a statement.
Meanwhile in North Korea, state-run news agency KCNA published a report Thursday citing a statement from the North's Korean Jurists Committee that lambasted Kuala Lumpur's handling of the investigation.
"Malaysia is obliged to hand his body to the DPRK side as it made an autopsy and forensic examination of it in an illegal and immoral manner," the KCNA report said.
"The biggest responsibility for his death rests with the government of Malaysia as the citizen of the DPRK died in its land," the report said without naming the person who had died but identifying him as "a citizen of the DPRK bearing a diplomatic passport."
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UMNO Youth vice-chief Khairul Azwan reads a protest note outside the gate of the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 23, 2017. [AnisNatasha/BenarNews]


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BENARNEWS- Kim Jong Nam had traces of a banned potent chemical weapon on his face and in his eyes when he died, Malaysian police said Friday, citing toxicology test results.
The results appeared to confirm widespread speculation that the estranged elder half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was poisoned by two women who accosted him at a Kuala Lumpur area airport on Feb. 13, smeared liquid on his face and walked away.
In a statement, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said results of preliminary tests at the Department of Chemistry Malaysia "indicate with certainty that the substance involved was Ethyl S-2-diisopropylaminoethyl methyl phosphonothiolate or 'VX Nerve Agent.'"
The analysis was done on swabs of the victim's eye mucus and face, Khalid said. "Other exhibits are still being analyzed," he added.
"The cause of death is that chemical," the police chief told reporters later on Friday as he prepared to travel to Saudi Arabia for the minor Umrah pilgrimage, adding that a team of experts would inspect the area inside Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2, where Kim was fatally attacked, for more traces of the VX and sweep it clean.
Venomous Agent X
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the chemical is a man-made chemical warfare agent that is odorless and tasteless and was developed in the United Kingdom in early 1950s.
"VX is the most potent of all nerve agents. Compared with the nerve agent Sarin (also known as GB), VX is considered to be much more toxic by entry through the skin and somewhat more toxic by inhalation," the CDC said on its website.
The United Nations classifies VX nerve agent as a chemical weapon of mass destruction and called for its elimination in the Chemical Weapons Convention, a multilateral arms control treaty that went into force 20 years ago.
"It is not something you can get hold of easily. You will need licenses. Even if you are a specialist conducting research, there are strict procedures to follow to get the chemical," Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad, a former toxicologist at University Sains Malaysia, told BenarNews.
"It is very toxic. Just 10 mg is enough to kill a person once the chemical touches the skin. So it must be handled with great care," he added.
Banned
Authorities will investigate how the banned substance was brought into Malaysia, Khalid told reporters separately.
"This chemical weapon is banned. We will investigate how the chemical substance was brought into Malaysia. It will be difficult to detect if brought into the country in small quantities," the state-run Bernama news agency quoted him as saying.
The man whom Malaysian authorities have identified as Kim Jong Nam died while being rushed to hospital after complaining to medical personnel that he felt ill after a woman attacked him with a chemical at KLIA2.
South Korea has blamed North Korea for Kim's death, citing a "standing order" from Kim Jong Un to kill his older sibling and a failed assassination bid in 2012 after his half-brother criticized the regime.
CCTV footage aired by Fuji TV that went viral on the internet shows two women carrying out the attack. Malaysian authorities arrested two female suspects, whom they identified as an Indonesian and Vietnamese nationals, days later.
In previous statements, Khalid alleged the two women were trained to handle toxins and had practiced at two Kuala Lumpur area shopping malls before carrying out the attack.
One of the two female suspects suffered side-effects after touching the chemical with her hands and was vomiting afterward, the police chief said.
Trained chemist
Apart from the two women in custody, Malaysian police are holding a North Korean man, and have identified seven other North Korean suspects, four of whom already left Malaysia.
According to news reports, the North Korean in custody, Ri Jong Chol, holds a doctorate in chemistry. After the police announced that Jong Nam was attacked with VX, authorities raided a Kuala Lumpur in connection with the investigation but no chemicals were found, Reuters reported.
Among the seven North Koreans sought by police is the second secretary at Pyongyang's embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Earlier this week, Khalid told a news conference that his department had asked the embassy to hand over this man for questioning along with an employee of North Korea's state-run airline – both of whom were believed to be in Malaysia.
"However, as of today, we have not received any relevant document from the police or the foreign ministry of Malaysia ...," Kim Yu Song, a consul at the embassy told reporters Friday.
The investigation into Jong Nam's death has resulted in a diplomatic row between North Korea and Malaysia, because Malaysian officials have refused Pyongyang's request to hand over the body without a post-mortem, and has insisted that his next-of-kin come forward to claim the remains and give DNA samples.
Malaysia has recalled its ambassador to Pyongyang and the North Korean ambassador has twice publicly criticized Kuala Lumpur over its handling of the case.
"We will wait for the next-of-kin to come," Khalid said Friday, denying reports that Malaysian police were going to Macau to collect DNA from Jong Nam's son who lives there.
"We need the next-of-kin to identify the body ... and we would like to take the DNA samples from the next-of-kin."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities are expected to press murder charges Wednesday against a North Korean chemist and two women who were arrested following the death of the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, according to sources and a news report.
The female suspects, Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong, poisoned victim Kim Jong Nam by smearing a banned nerve agent on his face that caused his death at a Kuala Lumpur area airport on Feb. 13, police said last week.
"Yes, they will be charged in court on Wednesday," a senior Malaysian official told BenarNews Monday on condition of anonymity.
"They will be charged under Section 302," the source said, referring to a section of Malaysia's criminal code that covers murder with intent.
The alleged assassins were trained to handle the VX nerve agent and instructed to wash the deadly substance off their hands immediately afterward, Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said.
A North Korean man in Malaysian custody, Ri Jong Chol, holds a doctorate in chemistry and is one of eight North Koreans whom police have named as suspects in the death of Kim Jong Un's estranged half-sibling, news reports said.
A remand order allowing police to hold the two women is due to expire Wednesday, but they and Chol are expected to face murder charges in a local court that day, the Sun Daily newspaper reported Monday.
"Sources familiar with the ongoing probe said – as the results of the post mortem have been obtained by investigators indicating a nerve agent called VX was used in killing the victim whose travel documents identified him as Kim Chol – it was highly likely the attorney general's chambers will give police the go-ahead to charge the suspects with murder," according to the newspaper.
Meanwhile in Seoul, a South Korean lawmaker on Monday cited a report from his country's intelligence service that pointed to growing evidence of the North Korean government's alleged involvement in the assassination of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2).
"Among eight suspects in this case, four are from the ministry of state security and two who actually took action are from the foreign ministry," Lee Cheol-woo, one of a group of lawmakers briefed by South Korean intelligence, told reporters according to Reuters.

"That is why it is a case of terrorism led by the state, directly organized by the ministry of state security and the foreign ministry," Lee said.
Airport swept
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian police have named a second secretary at Pyongyang's embassy there as one of the eight North Korean suspects and have threatened to issue arrest warrants for him and for an employee of North Korea's state-run airline, if the embassy did not turn them over for questioning by investigators.
Kim was in great pain and died within 15 to 20 minutes after being attacked with the VX nerve agent – a banned chemical classified by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction – Malaysian Health Minister S. Subramaniam told reporters on Sunday.
Kim was killed by a "very serious paralysis" brought on by exposure to the nerve agent, the minister said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Also on Sunday, a Malaysian Hazmat team swept the departure hall at KLIA2, where the attack occurred, for traces of VX.
Officials later in the day declared the area safe for travel, according to reports.


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BENARNEWS- A delegation of North Korean officials arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday seeking the body of Kim Jong Nam and the release of a North Korean national detained in connection with his assassination involving a deadly nerve agent at an airport.
Police have named eight North Korean suspects in the killing, but two Southeast Asian women were due to be charged Wednesday with Kim's killing, which South Korea has called an act of state terrorism and a "clear message to the world" from Pyongyang.
Delegation spokesman Ri Tong Il told reporters that topics to be discussed with Malaysian officials included "the question of return of the body of the deceased, a DPRK citizen" and "the release of another citizen, who was arrested by Malaysian police related to the above incident."
"Development of friendly relations between North Korea and the Malaysian government will also be discussed," the visiting diplomat told reporters outside the North Korean embassy.
Malaysia last week withdrew its envoy to Pyongyang after North Korea's ambassador repeatedly slammed Malaysia's investigation and refusal to hand over Kim's body.
Asked whether the embassy's second secretary had been interviewed by Malaysian police, Ri refused to answer and walked away.
Second secretary Hyon Kwang Song, 44, is one of three North Korean suspects in the case at large in Malaysia. Four others left Malaysia the day Kim died, police say.
'Wake-up call'
Kim Jong Nam, the elder half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, died about 15 minutes after two women accosted him at an airport and swabbed his face with a substance that has since been identified as the deadly chemical weapon VX nerve agent.
Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong and Indonesian Siti Aisyah were to be charged at the Sepang magistrate's court Wednesday under Section 302 for murder, sources told BenarNews. The women were arrested separately on Feb. 15 and 16.
Malaysia has stopped short of accusing the North Korean government of ordering Kim Jong Nam's assassination, but South Korea and U.S. government officials believe North Korean agents carried out the hit.
Among eight North Korean suspects in the case, four are from the ministry of state security and two are from the foreign ministry, Lee Cheol-woo, one of a group of lawmakers briefed by South Korean intelligence, told reporters in Seoul on Monday, according to Reuters.
"That is why it is a case of terrorism led by the state, directly organized by the ministry of state security and the foreign ministry," Lee said.
In Geneva on Tuesday, South Korea's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said North Korea should be suspended from the United Nations over the assassination.
"The recent assassination is a wake-up call to all of us to North Korea's chemical weapons capability and its intent to actually use them," Yun told the UN's Conference on Disarmament, according to Agence France-Presse.
He said the assassination "sent a very clear message to the world: Namely this impulsive, unpredictable, trigger-happy and brutal regime is ready and willing to strike anyone, anytime, anywhere."
"If the Malaysian government conclusively finds that North Korean authorities are behind this criminal act, the Conference on Disarmament might need to question the membership of North Korea," he said.
A North Korean diplomat lashed out at Seoul in response.
"North Korea totally rejects the despicable, irresponsible, impertinent and illogical remarks made by South Korea," Ju Yong Choi told the conference in Geneva, according to Reuters.
"DPRK has never produced or stockpiled or used chemical weapons and our position is clear. We categorically reject the assumptions and speculations on the incident in Malaysia."
Military sales
Also on Tuesday, Malaysian authorities said they were aware of two North-Korean controlled companies that, according to a Reuters report, were using a Malaysian front company to sell battlefield radio equipment in violation of U.N. sanctions.
The two companies were being "struck-off" or removed from a registry of business entities in the country, Malaysia's Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement responding to the Reuters report.
The front company, Glocom, advertised over 30 radio systems for "military and paramilitary" organizations on its Malaysian website, glocom.com.my, Reuters said.
The U.N. has banned Pyongyang from buying or selling military equipment because of its illegal nuclear weapons program and ballistic missile launches, the last of which took place on Feb. 12.
"It has been established by the source of the report that no company by the name of Glocom exists in Malaysia," the Malaysian statement said.
Two companies connected with the website – one that registered it and one named as its point of contact – "are said to be controlled by North Korean shareholders and directors," Khalid's statement said.
It named the companies as International Global System Sdn Bhd and International Golden Services Sdn Bhd. Both were in the process of being "struck-off," it said.
"The Royal Malaysia Police is constantly monitoring and taking pre-emptive measures to ensure that Malaysia is not being used to carry out any activities that would be detrimental to national security," the statement said.
"We have also taken all necessary actions to comply with international regulations with regards to related sanctions."
Fadzil Aziz in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Relatives of the Vietnamese woman accused of assassinating the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this month told BenarNews sister entity Radio Free Asia (RFA) she was a "good girl" when she lived at home, but what happened after she left Vietnam is a mystery.
"We only know that she is a good girl at home," Nguyen Thi Ha, the woman's sister-in-law, told RFA's Vietnamese Service on Tuesday. "We don't know what happened to her out there."
Doan Thi Houng and Indonesian Siti Aisyah were arrested by Malaysian authorities and are expected to be charged Wednesday with the murder of Kim Jong Nam at a Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13.
Local reports claim that Doan Thi Huong ran away from home to work at night in the entertainment industry. Since the arrests photos of Doan Thi Houng in a bikini and other outfits have surfaced on social media.
The suspects have told police they were duped into killing Kim Jong Nam by "friends" who told them it was just a harmless prank for a reality show, according to news reports.
Aisyah and Huong are believed to have been picked for the mission because their looks made them appear harmless.
Malaysian authorities say North Koreans arranged to have the deadly nerve agent VX on the hands of Aisyah and Huong, who then rubbed the toxin on Kim's face.
While news reports have focused on the women and the use of VX, Doan Thi Huong's relatives said they are at a loss as to what to do.
"They told us today," her father, Doan Van Thanh, told RFA. "We don't know what to ask. We are in the countryside and money is tight. How can we ask (for legal help)? How can we find a lawyer? We don't have the money to find a lawyer."
On Feb 25, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted an announcement on its website confirming Doan Thi Huong is a Vietnamese citizen and that her health is good.
"We are all surprised. Everybody says that she is innocent," Nguyen Thi Ha told RFA. "We need to have money to give her any help."
"To tell you the truth, we have to leave this case to the court," she added. "We can't save her even if we sold the whole village for money to help her. "
South Korea has blamed North Korea for Kim's death, citing a "standing order" from Kim Jong Un to kill his older sibling, and a failed assassination bid in 2012 after his half-brother criticized the regime.
CCTV footage went viral on the internet showing two women carrying out the attack. Malaysian authorities arrested the suspects days later.
A North Korean man in Malaysian custody, Ri Jong Chol, who holds a doctorate in chemistry, is one of eight North Koreans whom police have named as suspects in the killing, according to news reports.


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BENARNEWS- Two women arrested for the nerve agent assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half-brother were produced and charged in a Malaysian court Wednesday with his murder.
Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, 28, were brought under heavy security to the packed magistrate's court in Sepang district, the location of the Kuala Lumpur international airport where Kim Jong Nam was murdered on Feb. 13.
The case was adjourned to April 13 to give prosecutors and defense lawyers for the two women adequate time to prepare their arguments in a trial to be conducted in a higher court.
The women were ferried to court separately, each escorted by seven patrol cars and outriders. They left the court wearing bulletproof vests.
Aisyah, a mother of one from Jakarta, arrived in court wearing a red shirt matching her red-dyed hair and appeared nervous, while Huong, a woman with blonde-tinted hair from rural northern Vietnam, wore a yellow shirt. They face the death penalty if convicted.
Not guilty
Court officials read the murder charges to them separately but no plea was officially recorded.
The two were accused of killing Kim Jong Nam "with four others who are still at large" at about 9 a.m. at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA 2) departure hall, according to identical charges read out to them.
Aisyah said she understood the charge and pleaded not guilty when a translator accidentally asked for her plea, according to a BenarNews reporter in court.
Huong at first appeared as if she did not understand the charge until a court officer stepped in and sought clarification from her. "I understand," she said later.
Aisyah's lead counsel, Gooi Soon Seng, successfully requested the court to issue a gag order on police and potential witnesses, preventing them from talking to the media about aspects of the case, which has come under international scrutiny.
Jakarta's foreign ministry said that defense lawyers had been granted a request for a "gag order" to prevent details of the investigations being disclosed "so there is no interference in the ongoing legal process," Agence France-Presse reported.
The two women are being detained at a prison in Kajang, a city south of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, Gooi said. "I will try and meet her (Aisyah) next week," he said.
"Aisyah appeared nervous, her eyes were red," he said. "She was not crying in the court room but I suspect she was before."
Huong's lawyer told reporters outside the court that his client had told him she was innocent, according to Reuters.

"She denied. She denied. She said 'I'm innocent'," Selvam Shanmugam said.

"Of course, she's definitely distressed because she is facing death penalty," he added.
In Vietnam, Huong's father reacted to news of the murder charge brought against his daughter.
"We have read about it (the trial) online. We are very sad and worried, but we don't know what to do. She was ok before and this is something we did not expect to happen to her," Doan Van Thanh told the Vietnamese service of Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews.
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Indonesian Siti Aisyah is led out of court in Sepang, Malaysia where she was charged with murder in the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, March 1, 2017. [AnisNatasha/BenarNews]
Pyongyang rejects allegations
United States and South Korean officials have accused North Korean agents of masterminding the murder of Kim Jong Nam. His brother Kim Jong Un allegedly had a standing order for his assassination fearing he could be used in any overthrow of his brutal regime.
Aisyah and Huong have told police they were duped into killing Kim Jong Nam by "friends" who told them it was just a harmless prank for a reality show, according to news reports.
Malaysian authorities have accused North Koreans of arranging to have Aisyah and Huong apply the deadly nerve agent VX on Kim's face. The chemical is on a United Nations list of banned weapons of mass destruction.
CCTV footage went viral on the internet showing two women carrying out the attack. Malaysian authorities arrested the suspects days later.
A North Korean man in Malaysian custody, Ri Jong Chol, who reportedly holds a doctorate in chemistry, is one of eight North Koreans whom police have named as suspects in the killing.
On Wednesday, Pyongyang said it was "absurd" that VX was used, saying South Korea and the U.S. were mounting a campaign to discredit the hardline communist state.
It was "the height of absurdity to claim that the person who applied VX ... was left unaffected and the person to whom it was applied met a death," North Korea's official KCNA news agency cited unidentified experts as saying.
At the court and surrounding area on Wednesday, there was a heavy presence of armed policemen from the Special Task Force on Organized Crime (STAFOC).
Journalists began arriving at the court as early as 5 a.m. Only 30 of them were allowed into the courtroom while more than a hundred waited outside as the hearing began around 10 a.m.
Ties between Malaysia and North Korea have deteriorated following the murder. Malaysia last week withdrew its envoy to Pyongyang after North Korea's ambassador repeatedly slammed Malaysia's investigation and refusal to hand over Kim Jong Nam's body.
On Tuesday, a high-level North Korean delegation arrived in Kuala Lumpur seeking custody of the body.
Malaysian Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said Malaysia wanted the body to be identified by medical examiners through DNA or other means before it can be released. He said the protocol is to release it to the next-of-kin once identification is completed.
Kim Jong Nam is believed to have two sons and a daughter with two women living in Beijing and Macau.


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BENARNEWS- Saudi Arabia on Wednesday signed counterterrorism agreements with Southeast Asia's two largest Muslim nations as Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud wrapped up a visit to Malaysia and traveled on to Indonesia.
The king arrived in Indonesia for a nine-day visit – the first trip there by a Saudi monarch in nearly 50 years – following four days in neighboring Malaysia. He plans to travel on to China, Brunei, Jordan, the Maldives and Japan.
Before the king departed for Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia issued a joint statement announcing the establishment in Malaysia of The King Salman Center for International Peace, which is scheduled to launch within three months and focus on combating terrorism globally.
In addition to terrorism, King Salman and Malaysian officials discussed the Palestinian issue, the situation in Syria, the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and Iran's alleged interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
"The two sides completely agreed on the need to intensify and concert the Islamic world's effort to confront extremism, reject sectarianism and to move the Islamic world toward a better future in line of objectives and purposes of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to achieve the international peace and security," the joint statement said.
Malaysian and Saudi Arabian officials agreed to intensify joint efforts to combat terrorism in all forms without linking it to "any race, color or religion."
The King Salman center will be established in collaboration with the Intellectual Warfare Center at the Ministry of Defense in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Security and Defense Center at Malaysia's Defense Ministry, the Islamic Science University of Malaysia and the Muslim World League, according to the statement.
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Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (center) welcomes King Salman of Saudi Arabia on his arrival at Halim Perdana Kusuma Airport in Jakarta, March 1, 2017. (Indonesian Presidential Press Bureau)
Indonesia agreement
Later in the day, Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo welcomed King Salman to the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java.
"I believe Indonesia can be a strategic partner in achieving the 2030 vision of Saudi Arabia through the close economic cooperation as a fellow Muslim country," Jokowi" Widodo said.
"We thank His Excellency the President. I hope this visit could enhance bilateral relations between the two countries," King Salman responded.
Later, the two countries signed 11 memoranda of understanding that included a focus on world-wide terrorism.
"Countering transnational crime between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia was signed by Indonesian Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian and the Saudi Arabia police chief," Jakarta announced in a statement from the Presidential Palace.
While the statement did not detail the level of cooperation, Osama bin Mohammed Abdullah Al Shuaibi, the Saudi ambassador to Indonesia, on Tuesday told reporters that one of the royal visit's main goals was to sign the counterterrorism memorandum.
"We know that Indonesia suffered from bombing and terrorism. We will work with Indonesia in this field. We can exchange data, share experiences, and we can beat these guys," Osama told reporters at the Saudi Embassy in Jakarta.
Zuhairi Misrawi, an expert on the politics of Islam in the Middle East, said Saudi Arabia trusted Indonesia – the country with the largest Muslim population in the world – to combat terrorism and offer de-radicalization programs.
"We can exchange information about terrorism in the Middle East because Saudi Arabia knows very well about the situation of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda over there," Zuhairi told BenarNews.
Oil deals worth billions
During his trip so far, the king also signed off on major oil deals with the two Southeast Asian nations.
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia announced a $7 billion investment in Malaysian state energy firm Petronas in an effort to bolster a bid by Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia, to go public next year. A day later, the kingdom and Indonesia signed an agreement that builds on a $6 billion deal between Aramco and Indonesia's state-owned energy company, Pertamina, Agence France-Presse reported.
Malaysia and Saudi Arabia also announced the signing of four memoranda and joint ventures valued at 9.74 billion ringgit (U.S. $2.19 billion) in oil and gas ventures, Islamic finance, halal products and manufacturing.
Bilateral trade between Saudi Arabia and Malaysia has been on a strong upward trajectory in recent years, increasing by 27.8 percent in 2016 alone, to a total of 13.99 billion ringgit ($3.14 billion), Prime Minister Najib Razak wrote in a blog post welcoming King Salman last week.
Najib has said the relationship between Kuala Lumpur and Riyadh was at an "all time high" and described King Salman using  terms "the highest ever" or "best ever relations" between the two countries during the visit.
1MDB links
Meanwhile, an opposition leader in Malaysian pegged the Saudi king's visit as an opportunity to draw attention to corruption allegations against Najib involving the state fund known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Reports surfaced in 2015 that Najib had received hundreds of millions of dollars in funds siphoned from 1MDB, but he claimed the money was a political donation from the Saudi royal family to fund candidates in the 2013 general election. Last year, Malaysia's attorney general cleared the prime minister in a corruption probe into the fund transfer.
"The Saudi silence during the recent visit of King Salman to Malaysia, refusing to declare that the donation came from Saudi royal family, is loud and resounding," Democratic Action Party leader Lim Kit Siang said in a statement.
Hata Wahari in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- The only North Korean arrested to date in connection with the assassination of the half-brother of Pyongyang leader Kim Jong Un will be released for lack of evidence and expelled from Malaysia, senior Malaysian officials said Thursday.
Ri Jong Chol will be deported for immigration violations after his 14-day remand expires Friday, two days after a pair of Southeast Asian women were charged with murder in the attack. Malaysian police are looking for at least seven other North Korean suspects.
On the day of the murder, Ri drove four North Korean men to a Kuala Lumpur-area airport, a senior Malaysian government official close to the investigation told BenarNews. Two women allegedly accosted Kim Jong Nam and smeared VX nerve agent on his face as he was preparing to board a flight to Macau from Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2.
Those four men are the ones listed on charge sheets released by police Wednesday as accomplices in the murder, the source said. But they left Malaysia later that day and returned to North Korea, according to police.
The Malaysian government meanwhile announced it was ending a program allowing North Korean nationals to enter the country without a visa, ratcheting up a diplomatic dispute following the fatal poisoning on Feb. 13.
Separately, the head of a high-level North Korean delegation that is in Malaysia to claim the body and discuss the investigation with local officials said the victim died of a heart attack and not chemical poisoning as alleged by the Malaysian health ministry.
A free man
The North Korean will be expelled along with his wife and two children, the senior Malaysian official told BenarNews.
"They will be sent home on the next flight to Pyongyang at a date to be confirmed once the NK embassy is informed of the deportation," the source said on condition of anonymity.
Ri Jong Chol, who has a doctorate in chemistry, according to reports, is one of three suspects who have been arrested so far. On Wednesday, an Indonesian woman and a Vietnamese were charged with his murder.
"He was here and supposed to work at a local company but never worked even for a single day at the company," the source told BenarNews, saying the suspect and his family would be moved to an immigration detention center before being deported.
Malaysian Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali told reporters Thursday that the North Korean in police custody would be released and deported the next day.
"He is a free man. His remand expires and there is insufficient evidence to charge him," Apandi said, according to Agence France-Presse. "He has no proper [travel] documents so we will deport him."
Malaysia scrubs visa program
Also on Thursday, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi cited "national security" in announcing the government's unilateral decision to cancel a program of visa-free entry for North Korean nationals, starting March 6.
North Korea and Malaysia have had diplomatic ties since 1973, but the murder of Kim Jong Nam on Malaysian soil has shaken bilateral relations, with Kuala Lumpur already recalling its ambassador to Pyongyang over the affair.
The North Korean ambassador has twice lashed out in public against Malaysian officials for refusing to hand over Kim's body to Pyongyang without a post-mortem.
Earlier this week, a high-level North Korean delegation arrived in Kuala Lumpur seeking custody of the body, but Malaysian officials have not yet commented about this or said whether senior government representatives had met with the delegates.
North Korea has referred to the deceased man only as Kim Chol, the name on the passport he was carrying at the time of death, and never confirmed his identity as Kim Jong Nam.
'Extremely toxic'
On Thursday, the head of the delegation, former North Korean Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Ri Tong Il, told reporters that the North Korean man who died on Feb. 13 had a record of heart disease and died of a heart attack.
On Feb. 21, Malaysian health officials ruled out cardiac arrest in Kim's death.
The special envoy from Pyongyang also questioned the accuracy of Malaysia's claim that Kim Jong Nam was killed by VX, saying that the Malaysian government should send samples of the substance found on the body for verification by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an international agency in the Netherlands.
The United Nations has banned VX and listed it as a weapon of mass destruction.
"How is it possible that the two ladies who used their bare hands to contain the material and apply it to the face of the victim, and they survived," he asked.
"And everybody knows, and should know, the toxic nature of this material," he went on to say. "This is extremely toxic. That's why it was categorized as a chemical weapon by the OPCW."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia said Friday it was working closely with chemical weapons authorities in The Hague on its claim that Kim Jong Nam was killed by VX nerve agent.
The announcement came a day after a North Korean diplomat rejected Malaysia's toxicology report and suggested that "international chemical experts" were questioning its findings.
"[T]he Ministry is in close contact with the OPCW regarding the recent incident and the latter has provided the Malaysian authority with some technical materials that have been requested to assist in its investigation," a statement by Malaysia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The Netherlands-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons "has further indicated its commitment to provide further assistance as required," the statement said.
Pyongyang on Thursday has asked the Malaysian government to send samples of the substance found on the body of Kim Jong Nam for verification by the OPCW.
Ri Tong Il, a North Korean diplomat heading a special delegation to Kuala Lumpur, rejected Malaysia's toxicology report saying the North Korean man had died of a heart attack.
He said international experts were "unanimously" asking how two women who have been charged with murder in Kim's death could have smeared the highly toxic substance on his face and survived.
"And there is another unanimous request by international chemical experts, that in case it is true that it was used, then the samples should be sent to OPCW's office," it went on to say.
"And in case it is proved by the two separate international laboratories, with the same conclusion, then they should come to identify who is the one who made it."
Banned
The foreign ministry statement stressed that Malaysia had fully cooperated and complied with OPCW regulations.
"Malaysia does not produce, stockpile, import, export or use any Schedule 1 toxic chemicals including VX, and has made annual declarations to that effect to the OPCW," it said.
Authorities are investigating how the banned substance was brought into Malaysia, Malaysian top cop Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters recently.
The foreign ministry expressed alarm over the use of a substance that the U.N. lists as a weapon of mass destruction on Malaysian soil.
"The Ministry strongly condemns the use of such a chemical weapon by anyone, anywhere and under any circumstances. Its use at a public place could have endangered the general public," it said.
Suspect released
U.S. and South Korean officials have accused North Korean agents of masterminding the murder of Kim Jong Nam, according to Reuters. His half-brother Kim Jong Un allegedly had a standing order for his assassination fearing he could be used in any overthrow of his brutal regime.
The only North Korean arrested to date in connection with the assassination, Ri Jong Chol, was deported Friday and left Malaysia on a flight out of Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
"He will be escorted by two North Korean officials to Beijing and from Beijing to Pyongyang," Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). "We have also blacklisted him and he cannot enter this country again."
As Ri was led out of a Kuala Lumpur police station and released to immigration authorities, Khalid said he regretted that the North Korean was being freed.
"We believe that Ri Jong Chol played a part in Kim Chol's murder, but unfortunately we lack evidence to charge him," he told AFP, using the name given in the passport carried by Kim Jong-Nam.
Malaysian Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali on Thursday announced that Ri would be released because of a lack of evidence, then deported on immigration violations.
Ri's 14-day remand expired Friday, two days after a pair of Southeast Asian women were charged with murder in the attack. Malaysian police are looking for at least seven other North Korean suspects.
The two women allegedly accosted Kim Jong Nam and smeared VX nerve agent on his face as he was preparing to board a flight to Macau from Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 on Feb. 13.
On the day of the murder, Ri drove four North Korean men to a Kuala Lumpur-area airport, a senior Malaysian government official close to the investigation told BenarNews.
Those four men are the ones listed on charge sheets released by police Wednesday as accomplices in the murder, the source said. But they left Malaysia later that day and returned to North Korea, according to police.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities are seriously considering expelling North Korea's ambassador and another diplomat from the reclusive state's embassy in Kuala Lumpur over potential links to the murder of Kim Jong Un's estranged half-brother, two Malaysian government sources told BenarNews.
A proposal to declare Ambassador Kang Chol and second secretary Hyon Kwang Song "persona non grata" has been put forth in high government circles and is under consideration, the sources said, speaking on condition their names not be revealed.
Kang Chol openly criticized Malaysian investigations into the death of Kim Jong Nam while Hyong Kwang Song is wanted by police for questioning over the murder at a Malaysian airport outside Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13.
Two reasons have been cited for the proposed expulsion of the two North Korean diplomats – possible involvement in the assassination of Kim Jong Nam and revelations that North Korea was making Malaysia a base for arms dealing in violation of international sanctions – the sources said.
"No final decision yet, but we are discussing with the Foreign Ministry," one source told BenarNews.
Kim Jong Nam died within 15 to 20 minutes after VX, a lethal, internationally banned nerve agent, was smeared on his face by two women, according to findings.
'A heavy price'
Malaysia is among a small list of countries with close relations with the hardline communist regime in Pyongyang, which is under global sanctions over its illegal nuclear weapons drives and ballistic missile launches, the latest of which took place on Feb. 12.
Those ties have been shaken by the killing of Kim Jong Nam on Malaysian soil, with Kuala Lumpur already recalling its ambassador to Pyongyang and canceling visa-free entry to Malaysia for North Korean nationals beginning Monday.
Earlier this week, Malaysian authorities said they were aware of two North-Korean controlled companies that, according to a Reuters report, were using a Malaysian front company to sell battlefield radio equipment in violation of U.N. sanctions.
The two companies were being "struck-off" or removed from a registry of business entities in the country, Malaysia's Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement.
On Friday, Malaysia rebutted the latest attempt by North Korea to reject its findings that the deadly XV nerve agent had been used in the killing.
"The ministry strongly condemns the use of such a chemical weapon by anyone, anywhere and under any circumstances. Its use at a public place could have endangered the general public," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
At a press conference Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi issued an apparent warning to Ambassador Kang Chol, who twice lashed out against Malaysian officials for their handling of the investigation.
"If the rebukes keep coming from the ambassador, he will pay a heavy price," Zahid said. "As an ambassador, although the script is coming from a source that only he knows, he must respect our law, ethics and culture here. Diplomacy must be respected."
Malaysian police said they are seeking seven North Korean nationals in connection with the killing, but four of them have returned to North Korea, while three are still in Malaysia, including second secretary Hyon.
Negative perceptions
Legal experts warned that taking action against diplomats could have serious consequences.
Malaysia has two options, lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri told BenarNews: asking North Korea to cancel the second secretary's immunity so he can be arrested, or declaring him persona non grata – thereby kicking him out of the country.
"Any action taken will invite aggressive reaction from the North Korea. Malaysia, however, will face a negative perception from its own citizens and international community if it fails to seek justice for the deceased and his family," he said.
"In other words, will Malaysia want to be labeled as a country willing to ignore justice because of its fear against North Korea?"
Yusmadi Yusuf, another legal expert, said the persona non grata tactic should be the last option.
"At this stage it is not advisable. It will create further tension," he said.
"This is a crime issue, not a diplomatic issue," he said. "We have to find a middle path to communicate better and address their concern. ...We have not exhausted our diplomatic engagement with them."
Meanwhile, Malaysian police on Friday issued an arrest warrant for North Korean airline Air Koryo employee Kim Uk Il, 37, one of three North Korean nationals wanted in connection with the crime who is still thought to be in Malaysia.
It also released and deported Ri Jong Chol, the only North Korean in custody to date, citing lack of evidence in the murder case along with immigration violations.
On Wednesday, two Southeast Asian women who allegedly smeared the toxin on Kim's face were charged with murder.
North Korea sent a special delegation to Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday seeking to claim the body it has never identified as Kim Jong Nam and repair fraying bilateral ties.
Malaysia has so far refused to hand over the victim's body. On Feb. 19, Malaysian police said they were giving Kim Jong Nam's next of kin two weeks to come forward and positively identify the body, a time frame that expires on Sunday.
Fadzil Aziz contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- George Town, capital of the Malaysian island-state of Penang, oozes a bygone colonial charm that draws tourists to this jewel of a city on the Strait of Malacca.
Yet local preservationists worry the allure of old shop-houses in George Town's historic quarter, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and where ethnic Malay, Chinese and Indian traders live and do business is fading and giving way to upscale boutiques, hipster cafes and other modern commercial properties.
For preservationist Mark Lay, efforts by city officials and developers to attract more revenue from tourism by bringing in new projects and taking advantage of the heritage listing as a selling point threaten to undermine the town's "living heritage," as he put it.
Local authorities seem "more concerned with tourism and investments than preserving George Town's Outstanding Universal Value (OUV)," Lay told BenarNews. OUV is a term used by the U.N.'s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to describe urban attributes – such as streets with rows of old shop-houses – that led to the city's listing in 2008 as a World Heritage Site.
"Tourism has taken over in some heritage areas like Armenian Street and Keng Kwee Street. Left unchecked, we foresee a huge part of the heritage site given over to tourism," warned Lay, who is with the local watchdog group George Town Heritage Action (GTHA).
He cited cases where building owners in the heritage zone evicted old tenants and allowed high-paying new occupants to "gut" and renovate old structures in ways that did not comply with the heritage guidelines.
"It goes against what the UNESCO listing stands for ... the ultimate goal seems to be developing a touristic heritage theme park, rather than safeguarding the OUV criteria for which George Town was awarded the UNESCO status in the first place," he said.
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A trishaw sits outside Choo Choon Yew's shop, the only trishaw craftsmen left in Penang, Feb. 11, 2017. [S.C. Lei/BenarNews]
A boost for tourism
George Town – a former Straits Settlement created from more than 500 years of trade and cultural exchanges between East and West – became a World Heritage Site nine years ago along with Melaka city, a Peninsular Malaysia city that lies on the strait.
George Town's heritage zone makes up about 260 hectares (642.4 acres).
The listing has boosted tourism, drawing 6.31 million tourists since 2008, according to the Penang Institute, a think-tank in the state.
The international prestige that comes with a listing "often helps raise awareness among citizens and governments for heritage preservation," according to Paris-based UNESCO.
"Greater awareness leads to a general rise in the level of the protection and conservation given to heritage properties," the U.N. agency said. It noted that countries could also apply for financial aid and expert advice from UNESCO's World Heritage Committee to support preservation of listed sites.
But not enough is being done to preserve the city's heritage site, and a conservation management plan known as the George Town Special Area Plan (SAP), was delayed for five years until it was finally gazetted last September, according to Lay.
"There was lack of political will to manage, monitor and enforce the contents of the document for fear of scaring away the tourism sector and future investment," Lay said.
He has urged the Penang Island City Council and George Town World Heritage Incorporated (GTWHI) – the bodies that manage, monitor and promote the city's World Heritage features – to work with UNESCO and the National Heritage Department to enforce regulations outlined in the special area plan.
'Visitors come'
Ang Ming Chee, general manager of GTWHI, took issue with Lay's claim that the heritage site was becoming "Disneyfied," saying that tourism growth is normal for World Heritage Sites.
"Visitors come to see the townscape, architecture, cultures and local lifestyle. There are investors who are here because they appreciate the architectural heritage," she told BenarNews.
Tourism revenue benefits and empowers communities in the city, who are encouraged to play active roles and sell Penang-made products that promote local culture, she said.
Noorhanis Noordin, who leads the city council's heritage conservation department, said safeguarding George Town's architectural heritage is an ongoing process.
Authorities have been clamping down on building owners who don't comply with the strict heritage guidelines, she said.
The city council, from time to time, organizes workshops and seminars to educate property owners, contractors and the public on heritage-related development rules, she added.
"If they fail to comply, they will have to stop and remove the illegal work, or risk being taken to court," Noorhanis told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia on Saturday declared North Korea's ambassador "persona non grata" and said it was expelling him for publically criticizing a Malaysian investigation into the assassination of Kim Jong Un's half-brother.
The foreign ministry gave Ambassador Kang Chol 48 hours to leave the country, a deadline that is set to expire at 6 p.m. Monday (local time) according to a statement from Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman. The ministry also barred Kang from re-entering Malaysia.
The move to further downgrade bilateral relations with North Korea following the Feb. 13 assassination of Kim Jong Nam at a local airport happened after Ambassador Kang Chol failed to show up Saturday night at the Malaysian foreign ministry, where officials had summoned him for a 6 p.m. meeting, the minister said.
Kang's expulsion came about because North Korea did not meet a deadline on the evening of Feb. 28 to respond to a Malaysian demand for an apology over the envoy's critical remarks, Anifah indicated.
On Tuesday, a senior representative of the ministry and other foreign affairs officials met with a high-level delegation that had been sent from North Korea, and demanded that Pyongyang provide a written apology for the criticism made by its ambassador, according to Anifah's statement.
"Almost four days have passed since the deadline lapsed. No such apology has been made, neither has there been any indication that one is forthcoming. For this reason, the Ambassador has been declared Persona Non Grata," Malaysia's top diplomat said.
This status "is the most serious form of disapproval that the country can apply to foreign diplomats," he said, adding it was also "often used to express displeasure at the conduct or policies of the sending State."
The minister also sent North Korea a warning.
"It should be made clear – Malaysia will react strongly against insults made against it or any attempt to tarnish its reputation," he said.
Diplomatic note sent
At around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, an unidentified official from the Malaysian foreign ministry was seen by reporters delivering an official letter to the North Korean embassy informing Pyongyang that Malaysia was expelling Ambassador Kang.
Officials at the embassy did not pick up phone calls from BenarNews and none appeared at the embassy's gate, outside which reporters had gathered, to comment on Malaysia's expulsion of the ambassador.
The announcement followed Malaysia's deportation a day earlier of a North Korean man, Ri Jong Chol, after he was released from police custody for lack of evidence as a suspect in Kim's assassination.
Malaysian authorities have arrested and charged an Indonesian woman and a Vietnamese woman as suspected assassins, and have identified seven other North Korean citizens wanted for questioning by police in the case.
The seven include Hyon Kwang Song, 44, a second secretary who is stationed at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
On Friday, two senior Malaysian officials told BenarNews that the government was weighing the possibility of declaring both Hyon Kwang Song and Ambassador Kang "persona non grata" in connection with Kim's assassination.
After Saturday's announcement, the government could also declare the second secretary "persona non grata" if the North Korean embassy failed to respond to an earlier request by Malaysia that Hyon Kwang Song assist local police with the investigation, another senior Malaysian official who is close to the case told BenarNews.
Experts praise move
On two occasions since Kim Jong Nam died in the attack in which his assassins poisoned him with a banned nerve agent, according to Malaysian police, Pyongyang's ambassador appeared before reporters to question the integrity of the investigation.
He also accused Kuala Lumpur of "colluding with hostile forces" to malign North Korea – an obvious reference to South Korea.
U.S. and South Korean officials have blamed North Korean agents for masterminding Kim's murder, according to Reuters.
"I think it is the right time that the Malaysian government took the persona non-grata action. The North Korean ambassador was seen as attempting to interfere with the police investigation and gave press statements that were slanderous against Malaysia," Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani, a professor of international relations at Universiti Utara Malaysia, told BenarNews late Saturday.
The criticism leveled against Malaysia by the ambassador "challenges the sovereignty of the country," commented Azmi Ibrahim, a professor of geo-politics.
"The allegations had violated diplomacy norms and were expressed publicly through media and not through diplomatic means. In order to defend the dignity of the country and to avoid further accusations, the decision of expulsion matches the outspokenness of the ambassador," Azmi told BenarNews.
So far, the diplomatic fallout from Kim's assassination has seen the Malaysian government recall its ambassador to Pyongyang and cancel a policy allowing North Koreans to enter Malaysia without a visa.
The decision to scrub the policy "is an indication of the government's concern that Malaysia may have been used for illegal activities," Anifah Aman said in his statement Saturday.
The ministry issued a separate statement earlier in the day, in which it rejected allegations "insinuating" that Malaysia had not complied with U.N. Security Council (UNSC) sanctions against Pyongyang, by allowing two North Korean-controlled companies to use a Malaysian front company to sell battlefield radio equipment in violation of those sanctions.
"Malaysia categorically rejects any such insinuation" and "highly values the important work being carried out by the UNSC Sanctions Committee" regarding North Korea," the ministry said, responding to allegations contained in a story broken by Reuters.
Malaysia was "fully cooperating" with a panel of Security Council experts and had provided it with required responses to its queries, the ministry added.


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BENARNEWS- Ties between Malaysia and North Korea further frayed on Monday over the assassination of Kim Jong Un's half-brother, with mutual expulsion of ambassadors and the Malaysian football team's scrubbing plans for playing an Asia Cup qualifying match in Pyongyang.

Before boarding a flight to Beijing on Monday night, North Korean Ambassador Kang Chol got in a parting shot over Malaysia's investigation into the Feb. 13 murder of Kim Jong Nam at a Kuala Lumpur area airport – the kind of criticism that led the Malaysian government to declare the envoy "persona non grata" and order his expulsion two days earlier.

As Kang flew out of the country, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry condemned North Korea's launch of four ballistic missiles earlier in the day, and the North Korean state news agency reported that Malaysia's ambassador to Pyongyang was now unwelcome and officially declared "persona non grata" by the communist state's foreign ministry.

The Malaysian envoy had 48 hours to leave North Korea, the item in the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, but without explaining why or mentioning that Kuala Lumpur's ambassador had in fact exited the country following his recall in late February. On Monday, Malaysia also officially terminated a policy that allowed North Korean citizens to enter the Southeast Asian nation without a visa, another feature of long-standing bilateral relations that have deteriorated since the assassination.

Kang Chol along with his wife and granddaughter boarded the flight out of Malaysia as a 48-hour deadline for his mandatory departure expired.

"I express grave concern over the extreme measures taken by the Malaysian government doing great harm to the bilateral relations, which has a history of more than 40 years," Kang told journalists, as police escorted him into the airport's departure hall when he arrived there from the North Korean embassy at around 4:30 p.m. 

The ambassador had angered Malaysian officials for twice publicly criticizing the integrity of a police investigation into the Feb. 13 assassination of Kim Jong Nam at a Kuala Lumpur area airport, where he was fatally poisoned with a banned chemical agent, according to Malaysian authorities.

The ambassador had accused the Malaysian government of "colluding with hostile forces" in the probe – a clear reference to South Korea. He also had criticized local authorities for refusing a North Korean request to hand over Kim's body without an autopsy.

"The statements I have made were an expression of the righteous stand as the ambassador of the DPRK in this country on the pre-targetted investigation by the Malaysian police as they have conducted the autopsy without the consent and attendance of the DPRK embassy, and later arrested a DPRK citizen without any clear evidence showing his involvement in the incident," Kang told reporters at the airport, through an interpreter.

'They should have apologized'

The decision by Malaysia to expel Kang came after he was a no-show for a meeting at the foreign ministry where he was summoned Saturday evening, and after North Korean officials failed to meet a Feb. 28 deadline for apologizing for the ambassador's critical remarks, according to Malaysia's foreign minister. 

"They should have apologized. So based on principles, we have declared him persona non grata," Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters Monday, according to Reuters.

"There is no one who could undermine us or disrupt us as they please," he said.

When Kuala Lumpur announced Saturday that it was expelling Pyongyang's envoy, Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman warned North Korean officials to refrain from criticizing Malaysia even more.

On Monday evening, his ministry issued a strongly worded statement in response to the latest North Korean ballistic missile shots, three of which reportedly came down in waters off Japan.

The launches were a "flagrant violation" of U.N. Security Council resolutions and undermined global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation efforts, the ministry said.

"This action has fueled regional tensions and again demonstrates the DPRK's disregard for the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula, the region and the world in general," it said.

Is it safe?

In the afternoon, the Football Association of Malaysia announced the national team's cancellation of plans to play the North Korean team in Pyongyang in a match scheduled for March 28, citing "security reasons." 

Hamidin Mohd Amin, the association's secretary general, said the decision to kick out Kang Chol had made it unsafe for Malaysians to visit North Korea at this time. The association, however, has put in an application with the Asian Football Confederation requesting that the match against North Korea be moved to a neutral venue, Hamidin said.

Meanwhile, two Southeast Asian women are in Malaysian custody as suspected assassins in the investigation into Kim's murder, and Malaysian authorities have identified seven North Korean citizens as wanted for questioning in the case, including Hyon Kwang Song, the second secretary at Pyongyang's embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

Apart Hyon and the six other wanted North Koreans, Malaysia arrested another North Korean man as a suspect but released and deported him last week, citing a lack of evidence.

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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities said they stopped a car-bomb plot, broke up a counterfeit passport ring and confiscated thousands of dollars while arresting seven men, including four from Yemen, in February raids.
Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar revealed that authorities had arrested a 41-year-old Malaysian factory technician and a 28-year-old Indonesian farmer on Feb. 21 before they could launch an alleged terror act.
"Through investigation, we have found that the two men received orders from Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi to launch a large-scale vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack in the country before making their way to Syria to join the Islamic State (IS)," Khalid said Sunday.
Police have identified Wanndy as an IS fighter based in Syria who allegedly orchestrated a grenade attack that injured eight patrons at a Kuala Lumpur area nightclub last year.
The Indonesian man, Khalid said, had been deported from Turkey on June 2016 after attempting to enter Syria illegally.
Police also arrested a 37-year-old student on Feb. 23 who was using a fake student visa and was enrolled in a public university in the city, Khalid said.
"The suspect is a member of a terrorist group from East Asia and has made Malaysia a transit point and hideout," Khalid said, adding the student entered the country in 2011.
The suspect has ties with another East Asian terrorist suspect, who is responsible for arranging a safe route for the group's members to join IS in Syria, according to Khalid.
Yemeni suspects
The Yemenis were detained in two areas – Serdang and Cyberjaya, in the state of Selangor on Feb. 26, according to Khalid.
Police believed that the four were part of a rebel faction in Yemen, Khalid said, but he did not comment on whether they had potential links to IS.
"In our initial investigation, they were involved in a syndicate specializing in falsifying travel documents," Khalid said.
During the raid, police seized bogus international passports and 270,000 ringgit (U.S. $60,600) in foreign currency.
Ahmad El-Muhammady Ahmad, an analyst with the International Islamic University Malaysia, told BenarNews on Monday that preliminary information linked the Yemeni men to Wanndy and Katibah Nusantara (KN). Ahmad helps Malaysian authorities run de-radicalization programs.
KN, the Malay Archipelago unit of IS, groups fighters from the Malay-speaking region of Malaysia and Indonesia along with the Southern Philippines.
While Khalid did not name the suspects, he said all are being held under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012 and Immigration Act.
Since 2013, authorities in Malaysia arrested 278 people with suspected IS links, of whom 66 have since been freed, according to the latest figures from the government.


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BENARNEWS- Authorities foiled a plot to attack visiting Saudi royalty when they arrested four Yemenis during counter-terrorism raids last month, Malaysia's police chief said Tuesday but without going into details.
The suspects, who have not been named, were arrested on Feb. 26 following raids in Serdang and Cyberjaya, in Selangor state. Saudi King Salman Abdulaziz Al-Saud and his entourage arrived in Malaysia that day for a four-day visit.
Speaking at a news conference during a regional meeting in George Town on international narcotics enforcement, Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar did not name the Saudi royal targeted in the alleged plot.
"The suspects were involved in producing false travel documents and distributing drugs," Khalid told reporters. "They were planning to attack the Arab royalty when they visited Kuala Lumpur. Thank God we got them in the nick of time before they got close to executing their plan."
Yemenis among 7 arrested suspects
On Sunday, when they announced the arrests of seven alleged terror suspects in multiple raids in February, police said the four Yemenis belonged to a rebel faction in Yemen.
The Yemenis were linked to a counterfeit passport ring while other suspects were linked to a foiled car-bomb plot, officials told a news conference on Sunday. Police said they seized fake international passports and 270,000 ringgit (U.S. $60,600) in foreign money.
All seven suspects were being held under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012 and Immigration Act, Khalid said Sunday.
Before King Salman departed for Indonesia, the Saudi and Malaysian governments issued a joint statement announcing the establishment in Malaysia of The King Salman Center for International Peace, which is scheduled to open within three months and focus on combating terrorism globally.
In addition to terrorism, King Salman and Malaysian officials discussed the Palestinian issue, the situation in Syria, the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and Saudi rival Iran's alleged interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
Malaysia and Saudi Arabia announced the signing of four memoranda and joint ventures valued at 9.74 billion ringgit (U.S. $2.19 billion) in oil and gas ventures, Islamic finance, halal products and manufacturing.


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BENARNEWS- North Korea announced Tuesday it was barring Malaysians from exiting its territory and Malaysia reciprocated with a similar ban on North Korean visitors, as the two nations sharply escalated a feud following the murder of Kim Jong Un's half-brother.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who convened an emergency session of the National Security Council after flying home from a Jakarta summit of Indian Ocean states, condemned North Korea's move and likened it to holding his countrymen as prisoners.
"This abhorrent act, effectively holding our citizens hostage, is in total disregard of all international law and diplomatic norms," Najib said in a statement Tuesday.
"As a peace-loving nation, Malaysia is committed to maintaining friendly relations with all countries. However, protecting our citizens is my first priority, and we will not hesitate to take all measures necessary when they are threatened," he said.
The prime minister said he had instructed Malaysia's police chief to block "all North Korean citizens in Malaysia" from leaving the country "until we are assured of the safety and security of all Malaysians in North Korea."
The prime minister also called on North Korea to allow Malaysian citizens to leave that country and "avoid any further escalation."
The Malaysian police followed suit by mounting a barricade in the street in front of North Korea's embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and sealing the gate to the diplomatic mission with yellow "Do Not Cross" tape.
Heightened tensions
Tuesday's dramatic turn of events followed Malaysia's expulsion of the North Korean ambassador.
The two countries had enjoyed long-standing diplomatic relations until the row erupted last month. Malaysia was among a handful of countries that maintained ties with Pyongyang, which has been under international sanctions over its nuclear weapons program. On Monday, Malaysia joined a chorus of international condemnation over North Korea's launch of four ballistic missiles.
That same evening, North Korean Ambassador Kang Chol left Malaysia after Malaysian officials had declared him "persona non grata" for publicly criticizing a local probe into the Feb. 13 assassination of Kim Jong Nam at a Kuala Lumpur area airport, and because North Korea had not apologized for the envoy's outbursts.
Soon after, Pyongyang fired back by declaring Malaysia's ambassador to North Korea officially unwelcome. On Tuesday, the regime under dictator Kim Jong Un announced it was preventing Malaysian citizens from leaving North Korea.
Pyongyang's foreign ministry notified the Malaysian embassy that the exit ban would stay in effect "until the safety of the diplomats and citizens of the DPRK in Malaysia is fully guaranteed through the fair settlement of the case that occurred in Malaysia," the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on Tuesday.
An official at Malaysia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said 11 Malaysian citizens are in North Korea, including three staffers at the embassy, two who work there for the U.N. World Food Program, and their families.
"All 11 of them are currently safe. This is all I can say at the moment," Reezal Merican Naina Merican, Malaysia's deputy foreign minister, said Tuesday on national television.
"We have no tourists, no students there. At the moment, the foreign ministry is in touch with them."
'Not hurrying the probe'
Before he was kicked out, the North Korean envoy had appeared twice before the media's cameras to criticize the integrity and neutrality of the Malaysian investigation into the fatal poisoning of Kim Jong Nam with a banned nerve agent, as local police have ruled.
Ambassador Kang was also angry because Malaysia had refused a North Korean request to turn over Kim's body without a post-mortem and not without his next-of-kin coming forward to claim the body and provide a DNA sample.
So far, no one has come forward. Last week, a high-level delegation from North Korea arrived in Malaysia to hold discussions with local officials over taking custody of his remains.
Malaysian officials have not commented about such negotiations. They are waiting for Kim's next-of-kin to come forward and give DNA needed for a positive identification of the body, Police Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar said Tuesday.
"We are confident of getting a DNA sample," Khalid told a news conference Tuesday in George Town, Penang state, where he was taking part in a regional meeting on international narcotics enforcement.
"It would be soon. For security reasons, we cannot tell you," he said, adding, "We will have to give them [the family] some time. We are not hurrying the probe. But we will only settle for the DNA sample."
Malaysian authorities, meanwhile, have two women in custody, an Indonesian and Vietnamese who have been charged with murder as Kim's suspected assassins.
Police also identified seven North Koreans as being wanted for questioning in the case, including the second secretary at the embassy in Kuala Lumpur and an employee at Air Koryo, North Korea's state-run airline.
These two men and a third North Korean suspect are thought to be hiding out inside the embassy, and officers were standing watch outside the embassy for them to come out, the police chief said.
"We will wait, even if it takes five years," Khalid said.
Meanwhile, four of the seven North Koreans left Malaysia on the day of Kim's murder and an eighth North Korean, a trained chemist who was arrested as a suspect in the case, was deported last week after police released him because of a lack of evidence.


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BENARNEWS- The United States on Wednesday joined Malaysia and South Korea in blaming North Korea for assassinating the half-brother of Pyongyang leader Kim Jong Un at a Kuala Lumpur area airport last month.
Outgoing U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel openly condemned Pyongyang for the assassination of Kim Jong Nam. His condemnation came a day after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak became the first official from his government to publicly accuse North Korea of being behind the fatal poisoning with a banned nerve agent.
"The hijacking of the territory of a country by a foreign power for the purpose of murder – for the purpose of political assassination is reprehensible," Russel said Wednesday during a farewell conference call from Washington with reporters in Asia, referring to Kim's murder.
Until the phone interview, no American official had made such an on-the-record accusation. Russel also praised Malaysian authorities for what he called an impressive investigation into the case, where diplomatic tensions between Malaysia and North Korea have risen sharply in recent days.
"We have not taken any negative action against North Korea. What we are facing now is the result of their action in assassinating their own citizen in Malaysia, on Malaysian soil, using a strictly banned chemical weapon," the Malaysian state-run news service Bernama quoted Najib as telling reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Malaysian police have charged two Southeast Asian women with Kim's murder and have identified at least seven North Korean citizens as suspects in his killing, including a second secretary stationed at Pyongyang's embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Najib was speaking before he flew back to Kuala Lumpur to convene an emergency meeting of Malaysia's National Security Council over an escalating diplomatic crisis with North Korea.
Amid diplomatic fallout from the case, both countries have expelled their respective ambassadors and, earlier on Tuesday, Pyongyang barred Malaysian citizens from leaving North Korea. Malaysia reciprocated by imposing a similar exit ban on North Korean citizens in Malaysian territory.
On Wednesday, 11 Malaysian citizens were said to be stuck in North Korea, while officials in the eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak announced immigration officials the day before had detained 140 North Korean migrants because of expired work permits. The migrants work in the local coal mining and construction industries.
The 11 Malaysians in North Korea were "safe and able to continue with their daily routines," Najib said in a blog post on his website Wednesday. He pledged that his government would do all it could to bring them home safely.
Victim's family in hiding?
The diplomatic feud between the two Asian countries, which have maintained diplomatic ties for 44 years, stemmed from Malaysia's refusal to release Kim Jong Nam's body unless his next-of-kin came forward to claim the remains and provide investigators with DNA needed for a positive identification.
Najib pointed out Wednesday that "no one has come forward, perhaps out of fear," according to Bernama.
But on the same day, a video of a young man claiming to be Kim Han Sol, the dead man's son, emerged when a group posted it online. Kim Jong Nam, the older half-sibling of Kim Jong Un, had been living with his family in exile in Macau.
"My name is Kim Han Sol from North Korea, part of the Kim family. ... My father has been killed a few days ago. I am currently with my mother and my sister, and we are very grateful. ... We hope this gets better soon," the young man said in the undated video clip, which was redacted in parts and during which he held up his passport.
Cheollima Civil Defense, the group responsible for the video, claimed to look after North Korean citizens who seek protection. On its website, the group said it received "an emergency request by survivors of the family of Kim Jong Nam for extraction and protection."
"The three family members were met quickly and relocated to safety," the group said.
It also expressed its gratitude to the governments of the Netherlands, China, the United States and an unidentified fourth country for helping provide Kim's family with "emergency humanitarian assistance."
An official with South Korea's National Intelligence Service – which, in the immediate aftermath of Kim's murder, alleged North Korean agents had poisoned him fatally – confirmed to Reuters news agency the young man in the video was Kim Han Sol.
On Wednesday, BenarNews contacted the Dutch, Chinese and U.S. embassies in Kuala Lumpur but their spokesmen declined to comment about the video.
Dennis Wong in Kuching, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
This version removes an earlier reference to the national origin of Cheollima Civil Defense, which is unclear.


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BENARNEWS- Two Malaysians employed by the United Nations in North Korea have arrived in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur is working to secure the safe release of nine other citizens barred from leaving the communist state, Malaysia's prime minister said Thursday.
The two U.N. World Food Program staffers left North Korea amid a diplomatic row that has escalated after the assassination of Kim Jong Un's half-brother on Malaysian soil last month, and which has seen both countries impose exit bans on each other's citizens.
"Stella Lim and Nyanaprakash Muniandy have both safely arrived in Beijing," Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a Twitter message Thursday, referring to the two Malaysians working for the United Nations.
The World Food Program confirmed that the two had landed in the Chinese capital on Thursday.
"The staff members are international civil servants and not representatives of their national government. They work on WFP's programs in DPR Korea," the U.N. agency said in a statement sent to BenarNews.
The nine Malaysians who are still in North Korea consist of three staffers at Kuala Lumpur's embassy in Pyongyang and their families, according to information from Malaysia's foreign ministry earlier this week.
Late on Thursday, there was no official word on whether Malaysia would allow any North Korean citizens living or working on its territory to leave the country.
The remaining nine Malaysians were fine, Najib said in a Facebook post after he spoke by phone with Mohd Nor Azrin, the counsellor at the Malaysian embassy in Pyongyang.
"I would like to update that he, his family along with all of the other Malaysians in North Korea are safe, Alhamdulillah," Najib said.
"I have given him my assurance that the government will do everything we can to ensure that they return home safely soon. The whole of Malaysia is praying for them," he said.
The North Korean government has assured the safety of the Malaysians in Pyongyang and said they are "free to go about their daily lives," the prime minister said.
At loggerheads
The Feb. 13 assassination of Kim Jong Nam through poisoning with a banned nerve agent, according to Malaysian police, has rocked bilateral ties dating to 1973.
In addition to the mutual exit bans, Malaysia and North Korea this week expelled their respective ambassadors.
Malaysia kicked out North Korean envoy Kang Chol because he did not apologize for twice publicly lambasting a Malaysian police probe into Kim Jong Nam's murder.
Meanwhile, authorities have arrested and charged two Southeast Asian women and identified seven North Korean nationals as suspects.
On Tuesday, Najib blamed North Korea's regime for assassinating the half-brother of its dictator – marking the first time that a Malaysian official had made such an accusation. Officials in the United States and South Korea have also accused Pyongyang agents of being behind Kim's murder.
"What we are facing now is the result of their action in assassinating their own citizen in Malaysia, on Malaysian soil, using a strictly banned chemical weapon," the prime minister said.
The feud has centered on Malaysia's refusal to release Kim's body until his next-of-kin comes forward to claim the remains and give police a DNA sample needed for a positive identification.
Nearly a month after the assassination, no next-of-kin has come forward, according to Malaysian officials.
On Wednesday, a video of a young man claiming to be Kim's son, emerged when a group calling itself Cheollima Civil Defense posted it online.
Cheollima Civil Defense claimed to look after North Korean citizens who seek protection. On its website, the group said it received "an emergency request by survivors of the family of Kim Jong Nam for extraction and protection."
"My name is Kim Han Sol from North Korea, part of the Kim family. ... My father has been killed a few days ago. I am currently with my mother and my sister, and we are very grateful. ... We hope this gets better soon," the young man said in the short and undated video clip, which was partly redacted.


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BENARNEWS- "Witnesses" have helped Malaysian authorities legally confirm that Kim Jong Nam was the man killed in a poison-attack in the Kuala Lumpur area last month, Malaysia's police chief said Friday but without giving more details.
Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar cited a need to protect witnesses as he announced the official verification of the dead man's identity, whose North Korean diplomatic passport bore the name Kim Chol.
He said investigators verified the identity upon receiving witness confirmation that the body belonged to the 45-year-old half-brother of Pyongyang leader Kim Jong Un.
"We have now established that Kim Chol is Kim Jong Nam. We have fulfilled the requirements of the law in identifying the body," Khalid told a news conference.
"For the safety of the witnesses, we will not be divulging any explanation. I am not going to say more than that," Khalid added.
Weeks ago, Malaysian officials had identified the dead man as Kim Jong Nam, citing a comparison between the passport with Kim Chol's name and documents provided by the North Korean embassy, according to Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
The North Korean ambassador, who has since been expelled from Malaysia, disputed Zahid's assertion and officials representing the regime in Pyongyang never referred to the man killed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 on Feb. 13 as Kim Jong Nam.
Since the killing, which, according to Malaysian authorities, was caused by a banned nerve agent being smeared on his face, officials have arrested and charged two Southeast Asian for his assassination and identified at least seven North Koreans as suspects. This week, amid a diplomatic feud with Pyongyang, Malaysia's prime minister accused North Korea of being behind the assassination.
Bilateral tensions have escalated over Malaysia's refusal to release Kim's body without next-of-kin coming forward to claim the remains and provide DNA needed for a positive identification.
At Friday's news conference, Khalid did not say whether any of Kim's relatives were among the witness or witnesses who helped verify the dead man's identity, or whether any DNA sample was handed over to police.
"I will not reveal anymore about the identification process," Khalid said.
"We have no use for the body anymore and we will give the body to the Ministry of Health as no one has claimed the body," the police chief added. Under Malaysian law, only next-of-kin can claim a person's remains, he noted.
Malaysians rally
Tensions between the two countries ratcheted up this week as they expelled their respective ambassadors and imposed exit bans from their territories on each other's citizens.
On Thursday, two Malaysian employees working for the U.N. in North Korea left that country. Three staffers at the Malaysian embassy in Pyongyang as well as their families were said to be stuck in the communist state Friday because of the travel ban.
Prime Minister Najib Razak on Friday called on his countrymen, including the political opposition, to come together and support his government's efforts in resolving the diplomatic crisis with North Korea.
"If we are united when facing any problems or threats, the enemy from outside would not be able to destroy everything we have built over time," Najib wrote in a blog post on his official website.
Malaysia has maintained cordial diplomatic relations with other countries but they should not take this for granted, he said, alluding to bilateral ties with North Korea dating back 44 years.
"This does not mean any of them could abuse the hospitality Malaysia has provided over time and violate the law of our country or do as they please without respecting our sovereignty," he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysians on Friday prayed and rallied in Kuala Lumpur for the safe return of their nine countrymen who have been prevented from leaving North Korea.
Demonstrators converged outside the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
One of the groups, Malaysian Youth Solidarity brought bouquets of flowers as a goodwill gesture in calling for a peaceful resolution to the dispute.


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BENARNEWS-Malaysian counter-terrorism officers arrested seven suspected Islamic State (IS) supporters last week, six of them in the eastern state of Sabah, the nation's top cop announced Monday.
The statement came one day after an Indonesian police official said nine militants captured Friday by the elite counter-terror squad Densus 88 were linked to IS through a new Middle East network.
The six arrests in the part of Malaysia closest to the southern Philippines followed four counter-terrorism arrests there in mid-January. Officials then said IS militants were planning to make Sabah a transit point for South and Southeast Asians seeking to join IS Philippines (ISP).
The seventh suspect, a former medical assistant at a local government hospital, was arrested at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Sunday after he was detained and deported by Turkish authorities, Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said.
"Two of them are Malaysian citizens, three are Philippine citizens having Malaysian permanent residence (PR) status and two others are Philippines citizens," he said, adding that all were being held under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012.
Indonesia: a new network
On Sunday, meanwhile, an Indonesian police official said nine militants captured Friday were linked to IS through a new network.
"They are a new group of a radical Middle East network affiliated with IS," Central Sulawesi Police Chief Brig. Gen. Rudy Sufahriadi told reporters at a press conference in Poso regency.
The nine were not linked to the Eastern Indonesian Mujahideen (MIT) as previously reported, he said.
The MIT was seen as the remnants of the Jemaah Islamiyah network responsible for the 2002 Bali bombing. In 2016, security forces reduced the group from about 30 members hiding in the mountains of Poso to some nine fugitives.
Rudy denied reports from Friday that one of the militants arrested that day had been shot dead.
Six suspected militants were arrested Friday in a house in Tolitoli, a regency about 428 km (266 miles) north of Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province.
About two hours later, three others were captured in neighboring Parigi Moutong regency.
The leader of the group lives in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Rudy said, but he did not elaborate or name the new network.
Immigration officer
Police identified one of the Malaysians arrested as a 31-year-old female immigration officer at an airport in Sandakan, a coastal town near the southern Philippines, who allegedly arranged for militants from Malaysia and Indonesia to travel there without valid documents.
On Wednesday in the capital of Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, officers arrested two men, a 27-year-old Filipino with permanent resident status and an 18-year-old Filipino, over alleged direct links to IS in Southern Philippines.
"The suspect with the Malaysia PR status is believed to have secured funds for Malaysian fugitives Mahmud Ahmad and Mohamad Joraimee Awang Raimee," Khalid said.
Mahmud, 37, is a former lecturer in comparative religion at Universiti Malaya and one of several Malaysian militants operating in the southern Philippines, according to Southeast Asia terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna.
"The other suspect is an IS militant who has sworn allegiance to Isnilon Hapilon, a senior leader of the ASG in Basilan who is also an IS emir in Southern Philippines," Khalid said.
Isnilon, the leader of the Philippine branch of IS, was wounded by a military operation in Lanao del Sur in January, according to reports.
On Thursday, Malaysian authorities arrested two Filipinos with permanent resident status in Sandakan, a 53-year-old female ferry ticket seller and a 40-year-old male laborer who allegedly smuggled IS members through Sabah.
The sixth suspect, a 36-year-old male Filipino car mechanic detained in Sandakan on Thursday, was planning to leave for Syria to join IS, Khalid said.
The last suspect, according to Khalid, was the Malaysian man arrested at the airport on Sunday.
"He is a former medical assistant at the Jerantut Hospital in Pahang who left for Istanbul in October 2016, trying to enter Syria," Khalid said.
Since 2013, Malaysian authorities arrested 285 people with suspected IS links, of whom 66 have since been freed, according to the latest figure obtained by BenarNews.
Anis Natasha in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities plan to execute two brothers on Wednesday for an 11-year-old murder even though the Pardons Board has not heard their latest clemency appeal, according to Amnesty International (AI).
Rames and Suthar Batumalai are to be hanged, according to AI officials, who stated that family members were notified Monday that the executions would occur on Friday. On Tuesday, prison authorities asked the Batumalai family to make their last visit.
AI Malaysia's Executive Director Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu condemned the "hurried and secretive" manner in which the brothers' executions were to be carried out.
"Malaysia carries out executions on Friday mornings and this double execution would be the first-ever that we are aware of to take place on a Wednesday morning," she said in a statement. "This is symbolic of the rushed nature of this particular execution."
BenarNews attempts to reach Prison Department officials were unsuccessful.
The brothers, age 40 and 45, were granted a temporary reprieve from the gallows on Feb. 24 following a petition by their 70-year-old mother to the ruler of the state of Negeri Sembilan, Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir. The petition pleaded for the death sentences to be commuted or replaced with a life sentence.
AI noted that last month, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah of Selangor pardoned another inmate facing execution, reducing the sentence to life in prison.
The brothers, who maintain their innocence, were sentenced to death in April 2010 under Section 302 of the Penal Code for the murder of Krishnan Raman on Feb 4, 2006. Shamini claimed the brothers were convicted on circumstantial evidence as the High Court disregarded their claim that they merely intervened to stop two other men from attacking and killing the victim.
"Amnesty International has been informed that a fresh clemency application has been submitted by their lawyer on Feb. 23 and this has not been heard by the Pardons Board. This application includes a statutory declaration from the wife of the deceased, appealing to the Pardons Board for the brothers not be executed and instead be allowed to serve a life sentence," Shamini said.
Malaysia is among 25 countries in the world imposing the death penalty on crimes including murder, drug, kidnapping, and waging war against the King.
Malaysian government and civil society leaders have been discussing abolishing mandatory death sentences.


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BENARNEWS- One of Kim Jong Nam's children gave investigators DNA needed to confirm the identity of the assassinated half-brother of North Korea's leader, the Malaysian deputy prime minister told reporters Wednesday.
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi declined to reveal the identity of the person who gave a DNA sample or say how and where it was collected. This was the first time a Malaysian official publicly acknowledged that Kim's next-of-kin was involved in positively identifying his body.
"We know that the Inspector General of Police has announced that the body is of Kim Jong Nam based on the sample obtained from the deceased's child. And the sample has been put through the forensic and DNA procedures," Zahid, who is also the home minister, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
Last week, Malaysia's police chief said "witnesses" had helped authorities legally confirm that Kim Jong Nam was the North Korean man initially identified as Kim Chol who was killed in a poison-attack at a Kuala Lumpur area airport on Feb. 13.
According to a high-level Malaysian government source who spoke to BenarNews on condition of anonymity, Kim's child was taken to a "neutral country" to hand over DNA. The source, however, declined to say more.
Zahid's deputy at the Home Ministry, Nur Jazlan Mohamed, said officials didn't want to identify the person who provided the sample "because it could endanger the life of that child," Agence France-Presse reported.
The identification also was made using fingerprints sent by the Japanese government, Nur Jazlan told AFP. Authorities in Japan had Kim's fingerprints on file since immigration officials stopped him in 2001 as he tried to enter that country on a fake passport from the Dominican Republic.
Kim Jong Nam had been living in the Chinese territory of Macau with his wife and two children.
On March 8, a video of a young man claiming to be his son, Kim Han Sol, surfaced online. According to a group that posted the video, Kim Han Sol and his sister and mother were hiding out in an undisclosed location over fears for their own lives following the assassination.
'Looking at all possibilities'
The killing on Malaysian soil of Kim, the older half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, caused a diplomatic row between Kuala Lumpur and Pyongyang, which have maintained bilateral ties since 1973.
Both countries have expelled their respective ambassadors and announced exit bans on each other's citizens.
Malaysia has arrested and charged two Southeast Asian women with the murder and has named seven North Koreans as suspects in the case. Prime Minister Najib Razak also accused North Korea's government of being behind the assassination.
The row began over Malaysia's refusal to hand over Kim's body to North Korea without a post-mortem and unless next-of-kin came forward to give DNA and claim the body. More than a month has passed since the killing, but no next-of-kin has claimed the remains.
On Monday, Malaysian officials said they were giving Kim's family members another three weeks to claim the body, but had not decided what to do should it remain unclaimed. The following day, officials said the body had been embalmed to prevent decomposition.
On Wednesday, Zahid appeared to strike a softer tone by indicating that Malaysia was not ruling out the option of handing over Kim's body to the North Koreans, in exchange for nine Malaysians who have been stranded in Pyongyang because of the exit ban.
"We are looking at all possibilities," Zahid told reporters when asked whether Malaysia would consider such a swap in negotiating the release of the nine Malaysians.
Football venue up in the air
Meanwhile, the head of the Kuala Lumpur-based Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced Wednesday that an Asian Cup qualifying match between Malaysia and North Korea, originally scheduled for March 28, was being postponed until June 8 at a venue to be determined.
On March 6, the Football Association of Malaysia cited security reasons for the national team pulling out of this month's match, which was to take place in Pyongyang.
The confederation has sent North Korea's football association a request to nominate a neutral venue for the June 8 match by April 14, AFC General Secretary Windsor John said in a statement.
Should that match take place on a neutral pitch, then a second match between the two nations scheduled for Nov. 14 would also take place in a neutral setting "to preserve sporting values the spirit of fair play," John said.


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BENARNEWS- Security forces in the southern Philippines have killed an Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) leader who was wanted in nearby Malaysia for the murder of a Taiwanese man in 2013, Philippine military sources said.
ASG militant Buchoy Hassan (alias Black or Bocoi) was killed by joint security forces Tuesday in Tawi-Tawi, the sources said, according to Philippine media reports.
Buchoy was on Malaysia's "wanted list" for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of Taiwanese national Chang An Wei and the killing of her husband at the Pom Pom Island Resort in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah four years ago.
A Malaysian security source who spoke to BenarNews on condition of anonymity, however, described Buchoy as a "supplier" rather than a militant involved in cross-border crime between Sabah and the nearby southern Philippines.
Black's name appeared on a list of Filipinos allegedly involved in cross-border crimes – particularly kidnap-for-ransom activities – that was released in November by the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM).
Malaysian officials have not received official notification about Black's death, according to Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid, ESSCOM's director-general.
"Officially no, but we received information through the media and a liaison," Wan Bari told BenarNews on Wednesday.
Smuggler of drugs, contraband
Buchoy was a smuggler who profited from distributing contraband as well as drugs while operating from his home base on the island of Sitangkai, Philippines, the anonymous source said.
"Whether he was directly involved in the kidnap of Taiwanese national Chang An Wei at the Pom Pom Island resort in Sabah in 2013 is anyone's guess, but he very likely supplied fuel to the escaping criminals," the source told BenarNews.
He added that Buchoy supplied diesel, one of the contraband items he traded in, to cross-border criminals from Tawi-Tawi who travelled to islands in Malaysian waters off Sabah's east-coast seeking kidnap-for-ransom victims.
Buchoy was killed by Joint Task Force Tawi-Tawi and police during a raid at his residence in Barangay village, Maj. Gen. Carlito G. Galvez Jr., commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Western Mindanao, said according to Philippine media.
"Recovered from his possession were an M-16 automatic rifle, five speed boats and various outboard motors," Galvez said, the Manila Bulletin reported.
"We are continuously conducting support operations to assist police and other law enforcement agencies in expediting the arrest of notorious members of the kidnap for ransom group and in pre-empting kidnapping attempts in the province," Galvez said.
In announcing Buchoy's death, Philippine officials mentioned his role in the killing and kidnapping.
Chang was holidaying with her husband, Lee Min Hsu, at the island resort on Nov. 15, 2013, when Abu Sayyaf-linked gunmen stormed their villa. The militants, who wore ski masks, shot and killed her husband before taking her by boat to the remote Philippine island of Jolo.
Taiwanese media had reported Chan's family paid a ransom of 800,000 ringgit (U.S. $180,000) for her release. Philippine marines found her at a village near Talipao, a town in Jolo that serves as a base for ASG.
The militant group still is holding five Malaysian sailors kidnapped in July, although a deadline to pay a ransom of 2 million ringgit (U.S. $450,000) has passed.


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BRNARNEWS- Interpol has put out "red notices" for four North Koreans wanted in connection with last month's assassination of the half-brother of North Korea's leader in the Kuala Lumpur area, Malaysia's police chief said Thursday.
Malaysian authorities had asked the international police organization to help them catch the four men who are believed to have fled Malaysia on the day Kim Jong Nam was killed in a chemical attack at a local airport, Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said.
"We have obtained the red notice for the four North Korean men who were at the airport during the incident," Khalid told journalists in Putrajaya.
"We believe they have since left for Pyongyang. We are hoping to get them through Interpol," he added.
A red notice is a request among Interpol's member states to locate and provisionally arrest a person, pending their extradition. However, North Korea is not a member of the organization.
Interpol, based in Lyon, France, has posted red notices on its website for the four North Koreans, listing each as being wanted by Malaysian authorities for prosecution on murder charges, but without giving much more information. It identified the four as Ji Hyon Ri and Song Hak Hong, both 32; Jong Gil O, 54; and Jae Nam Ri, 56.
The four were filmed by a closed-circuit TV camera as they observed the assassination unfold at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 on Feb. 13, when two Southeast Asian women accosted Kim Jong Nam in the departures lounge and smeared a deadly nerve agent on his face, according to Malaysian police.
The suspected female assassins have been arrested and charged with Kim's murder. In addition to the four men listed by Interpol, Malaysian police have identified three other North Koreans as suspects in the case, and who are believed to be hiding out in Pyongyang's embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia's prime minister has openly accused North Korea of being behind the assassination. Officials in South Korea and the United States have also blamed government agents from Pyongyang for orchestrating the murder, in which Kim was killed with a banned chemical classified by the U.N. as a weapon of mass destruction.
'They have given consent'
The killing has led to a bilateral row between Pyongyang and Malaysia over Kuala Lumpur's initial refusal to hand over Kim's body to North Korea without a post-mortem, and unless his next-of-kin came forward to give DNA and claim the body.
On Thursday, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi disclosed that officials had travelled to another country to obtain DNA samples used to positively identify the dead man as Kim Jong Nam, and that these were collected from his 21-year-old son, Kim Han Sol.
"From the son, who is out of the country," Zahid said, declining to name the country. "I would like to confirm that the DNA has been taken and brought to Malaysia and it is indeed Kim Jong Nam."
Meanwhile, Malaysia's deputy police chief indicated Thursday that Kim's family had given its approval to Malaysian authorities to decide what to do with his embalmed remains, but the official did not make it clear whether the family wanted to take possession of the body.
"They have given consent to the government on what to do with the body. It is up to discussion and negotiation. We cannot just simply make a decision. You have to wait," Deputy Police Inspector-General Noor Rashid Ibrahim told reporters.
"When negotiations are completed and both agree to term we will announce it," he said, referring to bilateral efforts under way to resolve the diplomatic dispute, which has seen both countries expel their respective envoys and impose exit bans on each other's citizens.
On Wednesday, Zahid, the deputy PM, said Malaysia was "looking at all possibilities," including handing over Kim's body to North Korea in exchange for nine Malaysian citizens trapped in Pyongyang because of the exit ban.


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BENARNEWS- A Saudi-backed anti-terrorism center to be set up in Malaysia will conduct research into and counter the ideology spread by extremist groups including the Islamic State (IS), Malaysian officials told BenarNews.
At the end of a visit to Malaysia by Saudi Arabia's king earlier this month, the two predominantly Muslim countries announced a joint agreement to set up the King Salman Center for International Peace, saying it would be up and running within three months.
The center is being set up through a partnership involving the Intellectual Warfare Center the Ministry of Defense in Saudi Arabia, the Security and Defense Center at Malaysia's Ministry of Defense, the Muslim World League and the Islamic Science University of Malaysia (USIM), officials from both countries said in a statement on March 1.
"The establishment of this center involves many things especially involving academics voicing their views on how we can stem the ideology of militants, mainly IS (the Islamic State) as a growing presence around the world, not only in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, but also an ideology that has spread across countries that do not have extremist Islamic groups," Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department who serves as the chairman of the center's committee, told BenarNews.
"It takes into account how to attract militant groups to leave their extreme views and discuss achieving world peace without having to take up arms," Dusuki added.
The new center, whose price-tag has not been determined, is one of three counter-terrorism centers based in Malaysia, where authorities have warned of an emerging terrorist threat from recruitment of local youths by IS.
The country is home to an online counter-extremist messaging center overseen by the Royal Malaysia Police and the Southeast Asia Regional Center for Counter-Terrorism, operated under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with assistance from the U.S. State Department.
The new center will be housed on the university's campus in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, 45 km (28 miles) from central Kuala Lumpur, according to USIM Vice Chancellor Musa Ahmad.
"In recent years, we can see wars, conflicts and battles that have led to unstable and chaotic environments in Muslim countries. USIM would like to be among those who are on the frontline in sustaining peace and harmony throughout the world and to uphold the holy name of Islam and its ummah," Musa told BenarNews, using a term for the entire world's Muslim community.
Meeting with Muslim countries
The future center's mission will be to curb terrorism globally, and this challenge must be tackled urgently because the IS group is establishing a stronghold in the neighboring Philippines, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.
"The presence of the militant group based in the southern Philippines must be contained and the establishment of [the King Salman Center] will help curb militant groups from developing and recruiting the people of Malaysia and the countries of Southeast Asia as members of IS," Hishammuddin told BenarNews.
Fighting terrorism should not be limited to law enforcement and military operations, and governments should use extensive academic research as a tool in the war on terror, he added.
"[F]or the first time in history, five Islamic countries ... have agreed to cooperate in various fields of defense and counter-terrorism initiatives, particularly to promote Islam as a true religion while eliminating negative perceptions of Islam," Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said.
He was referring to Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan and Qatar, whose representatives met Tuesday with Hishammuddin on the sidelines of an international aerospace and maritime show in Langkawi, Kedah state.
"God willing, all these countries will participate in the King Salman Center for International Peace initiative."
Analyst has doubts
The center will only reap the fruits of its labor if its concept is practiced in other Southeast Asia countries, said Azmi Hassan, a geo-political expert at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
"Look at IS propaganda. It has a simple but extremely effective narrative, taking advantage of poor Muslims in Mindanao who were sidelined by Manila," he told BenarNews.
"That is why it is crucial that the center must work with local and regional organizations that would understand the plight of these people who have been influenced."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia and 67 other members of a U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State pledged to accelerate collective efforts to crush IS as they ended a one-day meeting in Washington on Wednesday.
During the meeting Malaysia's foreign minister announced that his country would contribute U.S. $1 million (4.4 million ringgit) in humanitarian assistance to former Islamic State (IS)-held territories in Iraq and Syria.
The one-day conference of foreign ministers was the first high-level meeting of the Global Coalition on the Defeat of ISIS – another acronym for IS – hosted by the Trump administration.
The conference wrapped up with top diplomats from the 68 partner states reiterating their nations "commitment to an integrated, multidimensional, and comprehensive approach to defeat ISIS and its global networks, fully recognizing this will require sustained, focused efforts."
"We recognize that returning ISIS fighters may pose a threat to their home countries and that we must address the issue by various means that may include reintegration and rehabilitation, as well as monitoring, investigation, and prosecution," the ministers said in a joint statement.
They said the coalition would also intensify its efforts to confront IS in cyberspace "and reshape the public narrative around ISIS to one of failure," and that members would "continue their collaboration to discredit ISIS's propaganda, emphasizing credible, authentic voices that provide alternative narratives to challenge ISIS's world view."
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson opened the meeting by vowing that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi would end up like the planners of IS-claimed terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels who were killed by coalition forces.
"It is only a matter of time before Baghdadi himself meets this same fate," Tillerson said.
'Ready to share our expertise'
Malaysia and Singapore are the only two Southeast Asian members of the coalition, which was formed in September 2014 under the Obama presidency. Afghanistan is the only coalition member in South Asia.
Announcing Malaysia's donation for humanitarian assistance, Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said, "Malaysia fully supports the global coalition's call for urgent funding for the newly liberated areas in Iraq and Syria."
Anifah highlighted Malaysia's emphasis on understanding, tolerance, mutual respect and inclusiveness in countering the global threat posed by IS.
"These are very noble values that are non-existent in the wayward ideology of Daesh," Anifah said, referring to IS by another name. "Retelling the narrative of true Islam that embraces these virtues is as vital in countering extremism as it is in putting a stop to the barbarities perpetrated by these misguided people."
Authorities in Malaysia have warned of a threat posed by the extremist group on its soil, where IS claimed a grenade attack that injured eight people at a nightclub near Kuala Lumpur last year. Since 2013, local police have arrested at least 278 people with suspected IS links, according to government figures.
The Malaysian foreign minister also touted de-radicalization as an indispensable component of Malaysia's counter-terrorism strategy.
"We subscribe to the belief that those who have been convicted under our terrorism-related laws had been misled into embracing a completely objectionable version of Islam," Anifah said, according to a copy of his speech, noting that Malaysia had a 97.5 percent success rate in de-radicalization and rehabilitation.
"Malaysia is ready to share our expertise with other countries."
Counter-messaging centers
A fact-sheet from the coalition states that counter-terrorist messaging is vital to its effort to defeat IS, and such online content is more prevalent as pro-IS content declines.
"This is a terrorist group that is increasingly struggling in the face of an increasingly organized and sophisticated set of initiatives by the coalition," said the fact-sheet released by the U.S. State Department.
The coalition's communications working group, led by the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the U.S., convenes more than 30 member countries with media and tech companies to share information and strategies to counter violent extremist messages online and present positive alternative narratives, according to the fact-sheet.
Malaysia, a coalition member since September 2016, has established regional and national counter-messaging centers.
The country is home to an online counter-extremist messaging center overseen by the Royal Malaysia Police and the Southeast Asia Regional Center for Counter-Terrorism, operated under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with assistance from the U.S. State Department.
A third center is set to open this spring. The King Salman Center for International Peace will take an academic approach to conducting research into and countering ideology spread by IS and other extremist groups.
"We have countered terrorism messaging with creative digital end-products which cover a range of themes that are highly relevant to countering violent extremism," Anifah said in his remarks.
"These include – from raising awareness among parents of youth that could be vulnerable to radicalization, to attacking the myths of 'masculinity' associated with the romanticized notion of jihad – and to using figures from popular culture as well as traditional poetry to satirize and undermine the efforts of Daesh."
Scale of effort
Along with de-radicalization and counter-messaging efforts, the coalition reported that 33 of the 68 member states had more than 9,000 troops in Iraq and Syria, as part of a military campaign to defeat IS, whose Iraqi and Syrian strongholds are now under siege by opposing forces.
Malaysia is not among countries that have contributed troops to that campaign.
"Coalition operations have liberated 62 percent of the terrain ISIS once controlled in Iraq and 30 percent in Syria, including key cities in both countries. The number of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria is at its lowest level since the group declared its 'caliphate,' down by more than half since its peak in 2014," the fact-sheet said.
In addition, coalition members have provided more than $22.2 billion (98.3 billion ringgit) in economic support and humanitarian aid in Iraq and Syria.
"Hard-fought victories in Iraq and Syria have swung the momentum in our coalition's favor, but we must increase the intensity of our efforts to solidify our gains in the next phase of the counter-ISIS fight," Tillerson told the conference, which took place at the State Department.
"Degradation of ISIS is not the end goal, we must defeat ISIS," the chief U.S. diplomat said.


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BENARNEWS- Two Malaysians found drifting in a boat off the southern Philippines were rescued after spending eight months as hostages of Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) militants, the Philippine military said Thursday.
But news of the rescue of sailors Tayudin Anjut, 45, and Abdul Rahim Summas, 62, was dimmed by reports about two Filipino crew members being abducted by unidentified gunmen Thursday from a ship off Basilan, a southern Philippine province, according to Philippine news reports. Three shipmates of the rescued Malaysians who were kidnapped alongside them on July 18, 2016, are believed to be in ASG custody.
Malaysian authorities said they were trying to verify reports about the early Thursday morning rescue of the two sailors off Jolo province.
"We are still gathering details from our Philippines counterparts and want to verify as to the accuracy of the news reports," Ramli Din, the police chief in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah that lies close to the southern Philippines, told local reporters Thursday.
Gustiah Sultan, 47, the wife of Tayudin, said she was waiting for confirmation from officials about her husband's release.
"I have yet to receive any official news from the government other than what is shown in the television. I am anxiously waiting for the official word from them," she told BenarNews.
When shown a picture of a man linked to the rescue, Gustiah replied, "Yes, that's my husband. The one in blue is my husband. I hope this is for real."
'All right'
Tayudin and Abdul Rahim were among five Malaysian crewmen who were abducted off the tugboat Serudung 3, as it sailed off Lahad Datu in eastern Sabah. The three men who remain missing are Mohd Zumadil Rahim, 23, Fandy Bakran, 26, and Mohd Ridzuan Ismail, 32.
Philippine media reported the three others were held by a different ASG commander whose unit is on the run from a military offensive in the southern Philippines.
The two rescued men looked scared but were "all right" after being found in the boat, Cpt.  Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokeswoman for the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), said in a statement according to media reports.
"A Fleet-Marine team composed of sailors and marines under the Joint Task Force Sulu successfully rescued two Malaysian hostages who were held captive by the Abu Sayyaf Group at 2 a.m. today (Thursday) in the waters off Kalinggalang Caluang near Pata island, Sulu Province,"  Petinglay said.
"The marines launched the rescue operation after they received information the hostages were tagging along Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Alhabsy Misaya and 30 followers who were hiding at a mangrove area in Barangay Karudong in Kalinggalang Caluang, Sulu."
The two sailors were sent to a military camp in Jolo for observation before being airlifted to Zamboanga City, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen had abandoned Tayudin and Abdul Rahim before dawn near a coastal forest hideout on the remote island of Pata, the report said.
 
 
Fresh kidnapping
The rescue followed a Philippine military operation against the kidnappers on a nearby island earlier this month that left eight gunmen dead, Maj. Gen. Carlito Gomez said in a statement, according to AFP.
Among those killed was ASG militant leader Buchoy Hassan (alias Black or Bocoi), who was on Malaysia's "wanted list" for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of Taiwanese national Chang An Wei and the killing of her husband at the Pom Pom Island Resort in Sabah four years ago.
For years, ASG has been kidnapping and holding hostages for ransom, and executing some of them. In February, the group released a video showing the beheading of a German hostage, Jurgen Kantner, after a deadline for a U.S. $600,000 (2.6 million ringgit) ransom passed.
Last year, ASG militants were blamed for attacks on ships in waters between Borneo island from the southern Philippines that resulted in abductions of dozens of Indonesian and Malaysian sailors. Many have since been released unharmed but three Malaysians and two Indonesians are believed to be in ASG captivity. Other hostages include 13 Vietnamese, a Dutch national, a Japanese and seven Filipinos.
On Thursday, two Filipino crew members of a tugboat – its skipper and the chief engineer – were taken by gunmen from the Super Shuttle Tug 1 as it towed a Panama-flagged ship off Basilan, but the attackers left behind nine shipmates and 31 crew members of the other vessel, a Philippine coast guard official told the Associated Press.
After months of negotiations, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia this month announced that they would launch joint naval patrols in early April to stop hijackings of ships, acts of piracy and maritime kidnappings in their common sea lanes.
Dennis Wong contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian counter-terrorism officers arrested nine suspected Islamic State (IS) supporters in raids in five states earlier this month, including a restaurant worker allegedly involved in a bomb plot against a police station, the nation's top policeman announced Friday.
Police did not reveal the names of those taken into custody during operations from March 15 to 21, but Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said officers foiled a plot to attack a station house in Perak state when they arrested the restaurant employee.
Bakar said the 31-year-old man who was arrested on March 17 had close ties to an IS cell in Poso, a regency in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province where Indonesian security forces have been hunting down the last few holdouts of IS-linked militant group Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen.
"The suspect who works as a restaurant helper planned an attack on Tapah police station in Perak," Khalid said in a statement, adding that the suspect had contacted Indonesian IS members to obtain explosives to be used in the foiled attack.
"The suspect also had close ties with IS cell in Poso, Indonesia, and was active in recruiting Malaysians to join IS," Khalid said.
News of the latest arrests of suspected militants came nearly 10 days after Malaysian authorities said they arrested seven IS supporters. Six of them were caught in the eastern state of Sabah close to the southern Philippines where IS-linked Muslim militant groups operate.
And, earlier this month, Malaysian police announced they had foiled a plot by four Yemeni men – who are in custody – to attack Saudi King Salman Abdul Aziz al-Saud and his entourage during a royal visit to Malaysia.
The four suspects were Houthi rebels, Khalid told BenarNews at the time. Houthis are Iranian-backed insurgents fighting Saudi-aligned forces in Yemen.
A range of occupations
All nine suspects in the newest batch are being held under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012, Khalid's statement said Friday. The act allows police to hold suspects for 28 days without charges.
Apart from the restaurant worker, the other eight include a technician with an inspection company, a primary school teacher, a veterinary shop owner, a mechanic, a resort worker, a cybercafé worker and two security guards, police said. The suspects were picked up during operations in Perak, Selangor, Kedah, Kelantan and Johor states.
Since 2013, Malaysian authorities have arrested 294 people with suspected IS links, of whom 66 have since been freed, according to the latest figures obtained by BenarNews.
The technician, age 27, was arrested in Selangor and was an alleged member of the Gagak Hitam (Black Crow) terror cell, which was crippled by police through the arrests of 14 of its members in September and October last year.
The cell, Khalid added, was responsible for a blast at the Movida nightclub in Puchong, Selangor, last year, which injured eight people in the first IS-claimed attack on Malaysian soil.
"He admitted to be the funder of Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi," Khalid said, referring to a Malaysian who allegedly has been fighting for IS in Syria since 2015.
Police have accused Wanndy of orchestrating the nightclub attack in Puchong.
Another of the nine suspects, a 37-year-old primary school teacher, was said to be spreading IS's Salafist ideology on his Facebook page to recruit new members. The teacher was arrested in Kulim, Kedah, on March 16.
Another suspect arrested on the same day was a 39-year-old security guard who had planned to join Islamic state in Syria or the southern Philippines, police said.
Four days later, the mechanic was nabbed in Kuala Krai district in Kelantan.
"The 32-year-old mechanic is suspected of channelling funds to IS in Syria and is in contact with a Malaysian IS member there," Khalid said.


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BENARNEWS- Three Malaysian sailors held captive for months by Abu Sayyaf Group militants were found alive and safe in the southern Philippines over the weekend, officials in Malaysia confirmed Monday.
Meanwhile, two fellow crew members and who had also been taken hostage by ASG were reunited with their families in Kuala Lumpur on Monday after being rescued by the Philippine military last week when they were found in a boat adrift at sea.
Wan Abd Bari Wan Abd Khalid, head of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) in eastern Malaysia, confirmed that the three other sailors were now free men after being found wandering together in Sulu province on Sunday.
The three were the last Malaysians freed from the custody of the ASG, a Muslim militant group based in the southern Philippines and believed to still be holding two Indonesians.
"The three victims, Fandy bin Bakaran, Mohammad Jumadil bin Rahim and Mohd Ridzuan bin Ismail were rescued on March 26 in a public area in Poblacion Punay, Panglima Estino, Sulu," Wan Abd Bari said in a statement.
"That's all I can say, for now, that they have been rescued," he said when BenarNews contacted him for more details.
The ESSCOM chief's statement said the three were in the care of the Philippine military.
"Like the other two rescued victims, arrangements to bring them home will be made as soon as possible," his statement said.
The news surprised Ridzuan's wife, Hariyanti Amsi.
"Really? He's been rescued? Oh God, I have been waiting for this moment for eight months," she told Malaysian state news agency Bernama.
The three were expected to be flown later Monday to Zamboanga City, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, before arrangements were made for them to return to Malaysia.
Fandy, 26, Mohammad Jumadil, 23, and Mohd Ridzuan, 32, along with Tayudin Anjut, 45, and Abdul Rahim Summas, 62,  served as crew aboard the tugboat Serudung, which was hijacked by ASG on July 18, 2016, in waters Sabah, Malaysia and Tawi-Tawi, the southernmost province of the Philippines.
 
'Treated like slaves'
Tayudin and Abdul Rahim were found Thursday drifting in a boat off Kalinggalang Caluang near Pata island in Sulu province.
On Monday, the two sailors reunited with their families at Prime Minister Najib Razak's residence in Kuala Lumpur. Tayudin said they had to endure threats of being shot or beheaded during the eight months they were held in a forest. Abu Sayyaf has held hostages for ransom, and has executed two Canadians and German in its custody since last year.
"We always moved at night so we didn't know where we were heading, and, last week, we were told to move again. We didn't even realize that we were separated from the other three and were rescued by the Philippine army," Tayudin told reporters.
"We were treated like slaves and we were given meals at times," he said, adding he was not beaten.
Tayudin said the lack of healthy food affected his health, including his eyesight, saying he could barely see.
"We always slept with body aches and pains from all the work we had to do," he said.
Meanwhile, Abdul Rahim said his experience of being held captive traumatized him.
"I had high blood pressure but I was able to walk. Now I'm unable to due to the poor treatment by them," he said.
Prime Minister Najib said he was grateful for the return of the two sailors, adding that no ransom had been paid.
"They explained the sufferings they went through and I heard the pressure the families had to undergo during the period of their detention," he said.
The government will cover all medical expenses for the men, the prime minister pledged.
In 2016, ASG kidnapped 10 Malaysian and 27 Indonesian sailors at sea. All of them, except for two Indonesians, have since been freed.
In an effort to stop such kidnappings, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines plan to launch joint patrols in the Sulu Sea next month. Last year, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte allowed Malaysia and Indonesia to conduct hot pursuits of militant boats into Philippine waters to capture kidnappers and free their hostages.


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BENARNEWS- The body of the assassinated half-brother of North Korea's leader remains at a Kuala Lumpur hospital, Malaysia's health minister said Tuesday as he responded to reporters' questions about whether the corpse had been removed.
Minister S. Subramaniam dismissed Malaysian news reports that Kim Jong Nam's body was taken away from the morgue at Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) over the weekend. Kim's remains have not been cremated or claimed by his next-of-kin, Subramaniam told reporters.
According to a report by the New Straits Times newspaper, his body had been taken to a local funeral parlor from the National Forensic Institute at Kuala Lumpur Hospital for a "religious rite."
"There has been so much speculation on the whereabouts of the body ... as far as I know, the body has always been in HKL," the health minister said.

"Whether it was given to another group, the answer is no," he added.

Questions about what will happen with Kim's body appear to be at the center of a bilateral row between North Korea and Malaysia that has flared since his death six weeks ago.

The dispute began when Malaysia refused to hand over his remains to North Korean officials without a post-mortem. Both countries have expelled their respective ambassadors and imposed exit bans on each other's citizens.

Officials from both countries were now trying to negotiate a solution to the impasse, Subramaniam indicated. A source close to the talks, but who declined to be identified, told BenarNews that negotiations were under way in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia is trying to secure the release of nine Malaysian citizens, including three staffers at Kuala Lumpur's embassy in Pyongyang, who have been stuck in North Korea as a result of the exit ban. 

Back on March 15, Malaysia's deputy prime minister said Malaysia was "looking at all possibilities," including handing over Kim's body to North Korea in exchange for the release of the nine citizens in Pyongyang.

Subramaniam said Tuesday that his ministry was awaiting instructions from Malaysia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister's Office.

"We need to wait for the results from the discussions before we can make any decision on what to do with the body," he told reporters.

"When they conclude the discussions and come to a decision, we will make an announcement," he said. 

Subramaniam denied that Kim's body had been cremated on Sunday, saying this could only have been done with the agreement of involved parties after the ministry had waited for Kim's next-of-kin to claim the remains.

"But, unfortunately, they have not come forward to provide any assistance on how the body should be treated, and now the Foreign Ministry is trying to find a solution how to move forward," Subramaniam said, referring to Kim's next-of-kin.

Cops visit embassy 

Kim Jong Nam, the older half-sibling of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, was fatally poisoned with a banned nerve agent while preparing to board a flight at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 on Feb. 13, according to police.

Two Southeast Asian women have been arrested and charged with his murder as co-assassins, and at least seven North Korean nationals have been identified by Malaysian police as wanted for questioning in the case. Malaysia's prime minister has accused North Korean government agents of being behind the assassination.

Four of the North Korean suspects, who were spotted by a CCTV camera at the airport on the day of the assassination, fled Malaysia later on Feb. 13, police said. Three other suspects, including a second secretary at the North Korean embassy, are still believed to be hiding out there.

On Sunday, four plainclothes officers from the Malaysian police's Special Branch entered the embassy's compound for the first time since the dispute began last month, according to a report by the state-run Bernama news service.

However, the report did not specify what the officers did during their three hours inside the compound. Efforts by BenarNews on Tuesday to contact officials for an explanation of the weekend visit by the Special Branch officers were unsuccessful.


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian court Wednesday sentenced two men to 25 years each in prison for carrying out a grenade attack at a Kuala Lumpur area nightclub last year in the first terrorist act in Malaysia claimed by Islamic State.
The defendants were the only suspects to be charged and convicted for the June 2016 attack that injured eight people at the Movida nightclub in Puchong, a suburb of the Malaysian capital.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court also sentenced imam Wahyudin Karjono, 21, and Jonius Indie, (alias Jahali), 24, to concurrent 10-year sentences on charges of giving support to a terrorist group. The sentences are retroactive to the dates of their arrests – June 29, 2016, for Imam, and July 1, 2016, for Jonius.
On Wednesday, the second day of their trial, Wahyudin and Jonius pleaded guilty after victims of the attack testified against them.
In pronouncing the sentences, High Court Judicial Commissioner Nordin Hassan said both men were involved in a serious act because they admitted to throwing a bomb in a public place.
"The bombing of the Movida night spot was the most serious terror-related crime in the country," the judge said.
"Your acts have brought chaos to Malaysia. The aim of the court's deterrent sentencing today is to send out a message to people out there, including your comrades who are continuing their terror activities."
Public Prosecutor Saiful Edris Zainuddin asked the court to impose tough sentences, pointing out that both had changed their pleas more than once.
"Both initially pleaded guilty when charged in July last year, and then had sought a trial. And today, they have decided to plead guilty again," he said, asking for their prison terms to run consecutively, meaning they would have to serve 35 years.
Defense attorneys Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Fakhruddin and P.A. Sharon sought lenient sentences, stating that both defendants had expressed regret for their actions and repented. The attorneys said they should be given second chances.
Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, the chief of the Malaysian's police counter-terrorist special branch, welcomed the court's decision.
"The sentence delivered by the judge can be used as a deterrent and a message to the public or anyone who has the intention of joining IS or wanting to aid the terrorist group," he told BenarNews.
SOSMA: 'Not detention without trial'
The attack on June 28, 2016, occurred around 2 a.m. as nightclub patrons were watching a football match on television. The two defendants were charged with throwing a grenade at the nightclub from their motorbike.
Police have alleged that Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi, a Malaysian member of IS based in Syria, orchestrated the attack in Puchong.
On the day of the attack, Wanndy posted a message on Facebook claiming that members of the extremist group were responsible for it.
"They were receiving instructions directly from IS militant Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi from Syria," Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said at the time.
Since then, Malaysian counter-terrorism officers have made a series of arrests under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA), which allows police to hold suspects for 28 days without charges.
"The sentencing today also shows that SOSMA is not detention without trial. Many still think that SOSMA is used to detain suspected terrorist without trial," Ayob told BenarNews. "This is to show that any form of denial regarding possession of material, documents or how their accounts were used to fund terrorists can no longer be accepted."
Just over a month after the Movida attack, news surfaced that police had disrupted an IS plot to launch terrorist attacks around Malaysia's Independence Day celebrations.
"They were planning to launch attacks at an entertainment center in Kuala Lumpur, a Hindu temple in Batu Caves, Selangor, and on a police station or any policeman by using hand grenades or firearms on the eve of Merdeka (Independence Day) 2016," Khalid announced then, adding that police had arrested three alleged members of an IS cell.
More recently, Malaysian police announced that they had foiled a plot by four Yemeni Houthi rebels – who are in custody – to attack Saudi King Salman Abdul Aziz al-Saud and his entourage during a royal visit to Malaysia at the end of February. Houthis are Iranian-backed insurgents fighting Saudi-aligned forces in Yemen.
Since 2013, Malaysian authorities have arrested 294 people suspected of having links to IS links, of whom 66 have since been freed, according to the latest figures obtained by BenarNews.
Anis Natasha contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Kuala Lumpur agreed Thursday to resolve a six-week-long feud with Pyongyang by sending the body of the North Korean leader's murdered half-brother to the communist state in exchange for nine Malaysians trapped there by an exit ban.
On Thursday evening (local time) the body of Kim Jong Nam was put on a flight to Beijing, and the nine Malaysians soon after boarded a plane in Pyongyang bound for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian officials said.
Two North Korean nationals, who had been identified by Malaysian police as suspects in the murder case and were thought to be hiding out in the North Korean embassy, were aboard an airliner carrying Kim's body to China, a Malaysian government source told BenarNews.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Thursday night declared an end to the bilateral crisis by announcing that his government had decided to allow Pyongyang to have custody of the body of Kim, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"[F]ollowing the completion of the autopsy on the deceased and receipt of a letter from his family requesting the body be returned to North Korea, the coroner has approved the release of the body," Najib, who was traveling in India, said in a statement following a series of "very sensitive" talks between the Malaysian and North Korean governments.
Najib also announced that the nine Malaysians, who had been barred from leaving North Korea, "have now been allowed to return to Malaysia" while Kuala Lumpur "will now allow North Koreans to leave Malaysia."
"I had a deep personal concern about this matter, and we worked intensively behind the scenes to achieve this successful outcome. Many challenges were overcome to ensure the return of our fellow Malaysians. The safety and security of our citizens will always be my first priority," he said.
The plane carrying the nine Malaysians – three staffers at the Malaysian embassy in Pyongyang and their families – touched down at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at around 5 a.m. Friday (local time).
Foreign Minister Anifah Aman was on the tarmac to greet the nine as they disembarked from a Malaysian government executive jet.
"We are thankful that all nine have returned to us safe and sound," Anifah said
Najib said Malaysia's investigation into the murder of Kim Jong Nam would go on.
Questions about who would have custody of Kim Jong Nam's body, which had been kept for weeks in a morgue at Kuala Lumpur Hospital, following his assassination in the Kuala Lumpur area on Feb. 13, were central to the bilateral crisis. It saw both countries expel their respective ambassadors and impose exit bans on each other's citizens.
"The diplomatic crisis has ended," Najib declared on his Twitter account.
 
Joint agreement
In mid-March, Malaysian officials revealed that DNA from Kim Jong Nam's son who lives in Macau was used to confirm the dead man's identity. He was initially identified by Malaysia as North Korean diplomatic passport holder Kim Chol.
It remained unclear whether Kim Jong Nam's wife and children, who live in Macau, had agreed to let Malaysia hand over his body to North Korea, or whether Najib, in Thursday's statement, was in fact alluding to Kim Jong Un as "his family."
Late Thursday, North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published a statement issued by both countries that announced an end to the diplomatic impasse.
However, as was the case with previous statements made by North Korean officials regarding the case, the statement did not name Kim Jong Nam. It only referred to him as a "DPRK national" who died in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13.
"As the DPRK has produced all necessary documentations related to the body of the deceased from the family, Malaysia agreed to facilitate the transfer of the body to the family of the deceased in DPRK," the joint statement said.
"Both countries agreed to lift the travel ban imposed on citizens of the other country and guarantee their safety and security within their respective territory. This would allow the nine Malaysians presently in Pyongyang to return to Malaysia and the DPRK citizens in Kuala Lumpur to depart Malaysia," it went on to say.
Details on suspects
Kim Jong Un's hardline communist regime has been blamed for the murder of his older sibling after he was poisoned with a banned nerve agent, according to Malaysian authorities, while he prepared to board a flight at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2.
Two Southeast Asian women have been charged with Kim Jong Nam's murder as co-assassins, and at least seven North Korean nationals have been identified by Malaysian police as wanted for questioning in the case.
Najib had earlier accused North Korean government agents of being behind the assassination.
Four of the North Korean suspects, who were spotted by a CCTV camera at the airport on the day of the assassination, had fled Malaysia, police said. Three other suspects included a second secretary at the North Korean embassy.
South Korea and the United States also blamed Pyongyang for the murder because Kim Jong Un reportedly had a standing order to kill his exiled half-brother.
But North Korea had stoutly denied this and slammed Malaysian investigations into the murder as an attempt to smear Pyongyang.
[https://www]
A Royal Malaysian Police officer stands at the main gate of the forensics wing of the Kuala Lumpur Hospital, which housed the body of Kim Jong Nam, March 29, 2017. [AFP]


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's police chief gave an assurance Friday that a probe into the murder of the half-brother of North Korea's leader had not been compromised by the homeward return of three North Korean suspects under a diplomatic deal worked out by both countries.
The three men had arrived in Pyongyang on Friday via Beijing along with the body of Kim Jong Nam, who was poisoned to death by the VX nerve agent at a Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13, in an audacious operation that triggered a diplomatic row between Malaysia and North Korea.
Malaysian Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said the men, who had been hiding in the North Korean embassy for weeks, were allowed to leave because they no longer were needed for the investigation into the murder.
"No, no, on my criminal investigation, it has not been compromised. I still state that the investigation on the murder of KJN is ongoing," Khalid told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
He said that the trio had been interviewed by investigators and, "We have recorded their statements and we are satisfied with it."
Malaysian officials had said that the three – Hyon Kwang Song, the second secretary at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Kim Uk Il, an employee of North Korean state airline Air Koryo, and Ri Ji U (also known as James) – had been caught on a CCTV camera at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2, where Kim was assassinated.
Prosecutors have charged two women – an Indonesian and a Vietnamese – with killing Kim Jong Nam, but officials in South Korea and the United States had viewed them as pawns in an operation carried out by North Korean agents.
Khalid stressed that police were still looking for four other North Koreans, whom they had identified among suspects named in Kim's death.
Police said they think the four returned to North Korea after fleeing Malaysia on the day of Kim's assassination.
"We need the four to complete our investigation. And I believe that if North Korea wants a transparent investigation, they should cooperate with us and hand over to us the four," Khalid said.
Swap resolves crisis
The Malaysian government had allowed the three suspects to return and permitted Pyongyang to take custody of Kim's body, in exchange for nine Malaysians who had been blocked from leaving North Korea for more than three weeks.
"The body of the DPRK citizen who died in Malaysia and relevant people from the DPRK have returned to the DPRK today via Beijing," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang told a daily press briefing.
"Based on international customary practices and humanitarian considerations, the Chinese side offered necessary assistance to the body's transit through China."
The issue of who would have custody of the body of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was a flashpoint in the diplomatic row. The crisis saw both countries, which have maintained bilateral ties since 1973, expel their respective ambassadors and impose exit bans on each other's citizens.
At the height of the crisis, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak accused North Korea of being behind the assassination.
On Thursday evening, Najib announced the crisis was over after his government had granted North Korea permission to take custody of the body. North Koreans who had been blocked from leaving Malaysia were free to go, and the nine Malaysians headed home on a flight out of Pyongyang.
Bilateral relations were intact, Najib said Friday during a visit to Chennai, India.
"[W]e hope North Korea will no longer raise such problems as this could jeopardize diplomatic relations between the two countries," the state-run Bernama news agency quoted him as saying.
At Friday's press conference, reporters pressed Khalid about which member or members of Kim's family had authorized, in a letter to the coroner, the body to be released, but he declined to say.
Kim Jong Nam had been living with his wife and children in exile in Macau and was estranged from his half-brother, Kim Jong Un, who reportedly had issued a standing order for his execution.
However, the police chief did not discount the possibility the North Korean leader had claimed custody of the body.
"The next-of-kin [wrote the letter]. Legally speaking, Kim Jong Un is Jong Nam's next-of-kin," Khalid said.


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BENARNEWS- In settling a diplomatic crisis following the assassination in Malaysia of the North Korean leader's half-brother, Kuala Lumpur had little choice but to agree to send the victim's body and three suspects to North Korea in exchange for nine Malaysians, analysts told BenarNews.
Malaysia's government was pushed into a corner where it had to put the welfare of its nine citizens, who were trapped in North Korea for more than three weeks due to an exit ban, above other considerations, some international relations analysts suggested in assessing the Malaysian decision.
A six-week-long crisis came to an end last week when Malaysia agreed to hand over the body of Kim Jong Nam and three North Koreans initially identified by Malaysian police as among at least seven North Korean men wanted in connection with Kim's assassination by poisoning at a Kuala Lumpur area airport on Feb. 13.
Malaysia made the trade although its police chief had vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice and the prime minister had, during the height of the crisis, accused North Korean government agents of being behind the assassination.
"Just what other outcomes do people expect? At stake was the liberty and possibly the lives of nine Malaysians, including children," Shahriman Lockman, a senior analyst in the Foreign Policy and Security Studies Program at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, told BenarNews.
"Nobody could've gauged how far the North Koreans were willing to go, how much pain they'd be willing to endure, to get what they wanted. What would you do in such a situation? Would you take chances? The results might be sub-optimal, but welcome to the real world," he said.
Ahn Sang Wuk, an associate professor at University Malaya's International and Strategic Studies Department, voiced a similar opinion.
"The Malaysian government's top priority had been to bring its citizens home," said Ahn, who is South Korean, likening the recent crisis to a hostage situation.
"If North Korea is not holding Malaysians hostages, then Malaysia will not consider suspending its diplomatic relations with Pyongyang."
'Wake-up call'
Kim was killed with an internationally banned nerve agent, according to Malaysian police, and the question of who could claim custody of his body was a flashpoint in the dispute that shook relations dating back to 1973. During the dispute the two countries expelled their respective ambassadors, froze mutual free-entry visa programs and imposed exit bans on each other's citizens.
In a joint statement last week, the two countries announced that the crisis was over, saying they had agreed to lift reciprocal exit bans and to discuss re-instating their mutual visa-free programs.
Since then, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said bilateral relations remained intact and, over the weekend, his deputy, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, announced Malaysia would keep its embassy in Pyongyang open. He said he hoped Pyongyang would reciprocate. However, on Tuesday it remained unclear whether Malaysia would send its ambassador to North Korea back to Pyongyang.
Shahriman said the episode around the murder of the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un on Malaysian soil was a "wake-up call" to Malaysia on the risks of maintaining ties with North Korea, a country under global sanctions by the United Nations Security Council.
The episode also did much damage to bilateral relations, he suggested.
"Don't confuse diplomatic niceties for actual policy. The fact of the matter is that Malaysia-North Korea relations have crossed a point of no return," Shahriman said, referring to the joint statement that announced an end to the crisis.
But Abdul Muein Abadi, a political scientist who lectures at the National University of Malaysia, was optimistic about the future of Malaysian-North Korean ties, saying he expected them to "recover in stages."
"It is clear that the solution is for the long term. The travel ban on Malaysians has also been lifted. It is an early and positive sign that bilateral ties will recover," he told BenarNews.
He said mutual trust could be expected in the future because the Malaysians who were stranded in North Korea for three weeks said they were treated well by the authorities in Pyongyang.
Left behind
The crisis may be over but, after the government agreed to send Kim Jong Nam's body to North Korea along with the three men, Malaysian authorities no longer have access to any of the North Korean suspects.
Four of the suspects are believed to have fled Malaysia on the day of the assassination and another North Korean suspect, a trained chemist, was released and deported earlier because of insufficient evidence, police said.
Now, police are left to deal with only two suspects, an Indonesian woman and a Vietnamese woman who have been charged as co-assassins in the Kim murder.
When BenarNews contacted them separately, the lawyers for both women, Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, declined to comment on how Malaysia's decision to allow North Korea to take custody of Kim's body and release the three North Korean suspects would affect their clients' cases.
Gooi Soon Seng, the lawyer for the Indonesian woman, said it was "too early to see the implications."
"Naran Singh (co-counsel) and I are doing the best we can to [represent] our client, and we believe she has a good defense," Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, an attorney representing the Vietnamese woman, told BenarNews.
Hadi Azmi contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian court on Tuesday sentenced a kayak instructor to six years in prison for allowing Malaysia's leading Islamic State (IS) figure, Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi, to use his bank account to finance terrorist activities.
Ab Karim Ab Rahman, a judicial commissioner at Kuala Lumpur's High Court, sentenced Mohamad Jazrin Mohamad Azaha after he pleaded guilty to the charge. The judge ordered the sentence to run from the day the defendant was arrested, May 18, 2016.
Mohamad Jazrin, 23, was charged with indirectly handling property belonging to Wanndy by allowing 1,990 ringgit (U.S $449) to be deposited into his bank account for Wanndy's benefit. He allowed the deposit at the RHB Bank in the state of Perak, between Jan. 30 and Feb. 6, 2016.
"Your act of allowing Wanndy to handle your bank account is called handling a terrorist's property. It can allow a terrorist to continue carrying out terror activities.
"It is a very serious offense and is worthy of a jail sentence," the judge said.
Mohamad Jazrin also allegedly deposited 2,000 ringgit (U.S $451) into a bank account belonging to an unknown individual on Feb. 10, 2016, at the direction of Wanndy.  The defendant faced up to 20 years in prison or a fine and seizure of property.
According to investigators, Mohamad Jazrin got to know Wanndy through Facebook in early 2015 before changing to WhatsApp to exchange messages. In mid-January 2016, Wanndy suggested that Mohamad Jazrim allow access to his bank account.
Defense attorney P.A Sharon asked for the sentence to run from the date of his arrest because her client was "still young."
"My client has also repented and is studying religion in prison," she told the court. "He would like to return to his family as soon as possible and since he is so young, he has plenty of chance to right his wrongs."
Sharon added that Mohamad Jazrin had cooperated with the police following his arrest, leading to detention of several other suspects.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Izhanudin Alias had asked for a deterrent sentence to stop the spread of terror ideology.
High on wanted list
Wanndy is the best-known IS fighter from Malaysia.
Last week, the United States classified Wanndy and Indonesian Bahrun Naim as Specially Designated Global Terrorists for providing financial and operational support for IS recruitment and for attack plots in Indonesia, Malaysia and in Southeast Asia, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Wanndy, who lives in Syria with his wife and child, has been accused of orchestrating a grenade attack at a nightclub on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur that injured eight people in June 2016, and was the first attack claimed by IS in Malaysia.
The 26-year-old, known as Abu Hamza on Facebook, actively recruited Malaysians to join the IS-cause in the Middle East, through social media channels.
Wanndy was thrust into notoriety when he and another Malaysian militant appeared in a video depicting the beheading of a Syrian prisoner, which went viral in February 2015.
In a September 2015 interview with BenarNews, Wanndy said he did not regret leaving the country to join the IS.
"I must say that I do harbor the hope of returning to Malaysia, but it is not my priority as my focus now is to stay here and fight, to achieve my dream of defending the IS," he  said then.
Since 2013, Malaysian authorities have arrested 294 people suspected of having links to IS links, of whom 66 have since been freed, according to the latest figures obtained by BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Ten months after a pedophilia case shook the nation, Malaysia's parliament approved tougher prison terms for child-sex abusers, a move overshadowed by outrage over a politician's remark during debate on the bill that a 9-year-old girl is ready for marriage.
Passed on Tuesday following two days of debate, the bill considers a child competent to give evidence, including uncorroborated evidence at trial, if allowed by the court. The bill does not address child brides.
Comments by Shabudin Yahaya, a member of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, regarding a failed proposal to include a ban on marriages involving children, drew a backlash not only from opposition lawmakers and social media, but also from his colleagues in the coalition.
During debate on Tuesday, Shabudin said, "they reach puberty at the age of 9 or 12. And at that time, their body is already akin to them being 18 years old. So physically and spiritually, it is not a barrier for the girl to marry," according to Reuters.
He also said there was nothing wrong with a rape victim marrying her rapist instead of facing a bleak future.
Despite video evidence and recordings from parliament, Shabudin said his remarks were taken out of context.
In June 2016, following the conviction in London of Richard Huckle, who admitted to 71 charges of sex abuse against children as young as 6 months, Malaysian pediatricians said legal action and punishment alone were not sufficient in dealing with abusers.
Huckle is believed to have targeted as many as 200 children over a span of nine years, posing as a photographer, English teacher and Western philanthropist to gain access to impoverished families, mostly in Malaysia.
"We need preventive measures in the form of parenting skills on child safety, sex education in schools, educating children themselves on protecting themselves from potential sexual predators," Malaysian Paediatric Association (MPA) President N. Thiyagar told BenarNews at the time.
Harsher sentences
The bill that was passed this week provides jail term of up to 30 years and six strokes of the cane for those found guilty of making, possessing or distributing child pornography.
Those convicted of committing physical sexual acts including touching part of a child's body, making a child touch any part of another person's body or making the child touch his or her body without intercourse can be jailed for up to 20 years and whipped. Previously, a child abuse conviction carried a prison sentence of 10 years.
Those who sexually groom children, such as touching and befriending children as a prelude to sexual abuse, can be sent to prison for 10 years, fined 20,000 ringgit (U.S. $4,500), or both, upon conviction. Additionally, anyone withholding information on child sexual offenses can be subjected to a fine of 5,000 ringgit ($1,128).
A special court will be set up to deal with child sexual crimes more quickly.
Azalina Othman Said, minister in the Prime Minister's Department, said the government cannot entirely assure that sexual crimes against minors will be curbed.
"(But the bill) is a start. Do not worry, there will be a follow-up to (enhance) the bill," she told the New Straits Times.
Child brides not included
Regarding the lack of coverage for child marriages in the bill, opposition lawmakers pointed out this could allow rapists to walk away free as there have been cases where they marry their victims, including children younger than 18, to avoid prosecution. Marital rape is not a crime in Malaysia.
Azalina dismissed that notion. "Any case involving an individual who has had sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 16, with or without the child's consent, would be categorized as rape," she said.
Under civil and Islamic law, girls and boys younger than 18 can be married. Although civil laws stipulates the minimum age for marriage is 18, those 16 and older can get married if they have the consent of the state chief minister.
Under Islamic law, children younger than 16 may marry if a Sharia court approves this.


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BENARNEWS- Nearly a year after Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines agreed to launch joint sea patrols to stop piracy and kidnappings by Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) militants, Malaysian and Indonesian defense officials said trilateral operations would start this month – possibly on Tuesday.
Malaysian officials invited reporters to the Sandakan Sabah Naval Base, in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, where they are expected to launch the joint patrols on April 11. While Indonesian armed forces (TNI) officials have said a launch date has not been set, a defense official confirmed to BenarNews that five journalists would travel to Malaysia for Tuesday's event.
"So far, Malaysia has not received any notification of a postponement. In fact, we have received a list of Indonesian reporters accompanying their defense minister," an official with Malaysia's Ministry of Defense, who requested anonymity, told BenarNews.
Previously, Indonesia Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Wuryanto said TNI had proposed that joint patrols begin on April 20 in Tarakan, in North Kalimantan province, because many of Abu Sayyaf's kidnapping victims at sea were Indonesians.
"We are ready, if it will still be in Sandakan (Sabah, Malaysia) or moved to Tarakan. We just wait for the decision from defense ministers," Wuryanto told BenarNews.
Series of delays
North Kalimantan and Sabah are on Borneo island, whose northeastern corner lies off the southern Philippines, where ASG and other Islamic extremist groups are active.
The waters that separate the southern Philippines from Borneo were the site of ship hijackings in 2016 that saw dozens of Indonesian and Malaysian sailors kidnapped and held hostage by suspected ASG militants.
In 2016, ASG kidnapped 10 Malaysian and 25 Indonesian sailors at sea. On Jan. 18, three Indonesians were abducted from a Malaysian fishing boat and are held along with four other Indonesians by ASG, according to the foreign ministry. All the Malaysians have been freed.
Defense and foreign ministry officials from the three countries began talks last year about mounting joint patrols in the region to stop such acts of piracy and kidnappings by ASG which has aligned itself with the Middle East-based extremist group Islamic State (IS).
In May 2016, the foreign ministers agreed to launch the patrols, followed one month later by  defense ministers meeting to discuss the plan, including focusing on coordinating air-sea patrols. By November, an Indonesian spokesman said a series of obstacles had slowed efforts.
On Wednesday, Bebeb Djundjunan, an official with the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said a temporary plan called for ships from the three countries involved in the patrols to gather in Tarakan, North Kalimantan, sail to Sandakan, Malaysia, and from there head to Bongao in the Philippines.
"The three locations are naval bases of each country which have been appointed as the command centers and are given the authority to issue notice to mariners if there is an attack," Bebeb told BenarNews.
Elsewhere, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told the Financial Times he hoped the long-delayed trilateral campaign would "keep the sailors safe and also prevent the movement of terrorists from one place to another."
A Malaysian defense ministry official said details about the patrols including the ships involved and protocols had not been finalized and were expected to be announced at Tuesday's event in Sabah.
Shafie Apdal, a member of the Malaysian parliament, whose district includes Sabah, supports the joint patrols.
" welcome such arrangements as long as it helps to curb criminal activities, be it terrorism, kidnapping, smuggling or human trafficking. Semporna in particular, on Sabah's east coast, is a hotbed for such illegal activities," he told BenarNews.
"We need to tighten our security, and the joint patrols would be a welcome relief. We also need to protect our fishermen who go out to fish within Malaysia borders but have become the target of these unlawful groups."
In Jakarta, terrorism expert Sidney Jones, who directs the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), a local think-tank, told BenarNews that patrols were just part of an effort to stop ASG.
"Patrols themselves are not enough. ASG is a complex organization with as many as 13 factions, most of them tightly interwoven with local government and security structures. Patrols may help reduce incidents of piracy, but they won't by themselves neutralize ASG," Jones said.
Fadzil Aziz in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS-The planned Tuesday launch of joint maritime patrols to curb kidnappings by Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) militants in the Sulu and Sulawesi seas has been delayed because the Philippine defense chief was unable to join his Indonesian and Malaysian counterparts at the event, officials said.
Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the launch would be moved to a later, unspecified date, because all three defense ministers are needed for the signing of the trilateral security pact "in the spirit of friendship and solidarity."
Philippines Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana "has been directed to accompany Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on an official visit to the Middle East from April 10 to 16," Hishammuddin said in explaining the delay.
Malaysian and Indonesian officials announced last week the launch would be held at Sandakan Sabah Naval Base, in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah. Invitations were sent to reporters to cover the event and Indonesian officials said five journalists would be traveling to Malaysia.
The launch will culminate nearly a year of planning for the joint patrols. In May 2016, foreign ministers from the three countries agreed to launch the patrols, followed one month later by a defense ministers meeting to discuss the plan. By November, an Indonesian spokesman said a series of obstacles had slowed efforts.
Foot-dragging
Indonesia had earlier delayed in confirming attendance at Sandakan, suggesting the launch be staged on Indonesian soil instead.
Indonesia military spokesman Maj. Gen. Wuryanto had proposed the joint patrols begin on April 20 in Tarakan, in North Kalimantan province, because many of ASG's kidnapping victims were Indonesian.
"We'll adjust to the plans of each of the defense ministries," Wuryanto told BenarNews on Monday regarding the delay. Indonesia could still serve as host for the launch, he said.
"We will try that if it is possible. But in principle it can be anywhere," Wuryanto said.
For years, ASG has been kidnapping and holding hostages for ransom, and executing some of them. In February, the group released a video showing the beheading of a German hostage, Jurgen Kantner, after a deadline for a U.S. $600,000 (2.6 million ringgit) ransom passed.
Last year, ASG militants were blamed for attacks on ships in waters between Borneo island and the southern Philippines that resulted in abductions of dozens of Indonesian and Malaysian sailors. Most have been released, but seven Indonesians are still believed to be in ASG captivity. Other hostages include 13 Vietnamese, a Dutch national, a Japanese and seven Filipinos.
In 2016, ASG collected at least 354.1 million Philippines pesos (U.S. $7.3 million) from ransom paid for hostages, Philippines-based news website Rappler.com reported.
An Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told BenarNews last week that a temporary plan for the joint patrols launch called for ships from the three countries to gather in Tarakan, Indonesia, sail to Sandakan, Malaysia, and from there head to Bongao in the Philippines.
"The three locations are naval bases of each country which have been appointed as the command centers and are given the authority to issue notice to mariners if there is an attack," Bebeb Djundjunan told BenarNews last week.
Lorenzana has said little about the joint patrols since the proposed launch date was announced last week. He did tell the Financial Times that he hoped the patrols would "keep the sailors safe and also prevent the movement of terrorists from one place to another."


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian court Tuesday awarded 18,000 ringgit (U.S $4,060) in damages to satirical cartoonist Zunar for his lawsuit against the government over its seizure of 66 copies of his books and pieces of art-work nearly seven years ago.
Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, a BenarNews contributor whose pen name is Zunar, has been arrested twice since November 2016 over allegations of sedition and "activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy" for cartoons critical of Malaysia's government and judiciary.
After Tuesday's Kuala Lumpur High Court ruling, he reminded Malaysian police to take care of materials seized during those arrests.
"Police had confiscated 40 pieces of my artwork in the state of Penang and the 1,300 books seized in Kuala Lumpur must be kept in good condition or they will face the same consequences," he told BenarNews on Tuesday.
He said lawsuits had been filed to recover the materials.
"This is a violation of the rights of cartoonists. We have rights, too," he said.
On Tuesday, a prosecutor confirmed that an official with the Kuala Lumpur High Court had recorded a consent judgment in regard to damages. Zunar sued the Malaysian government, the home ministry, a former inspector-general of police and two police officials who led the effort to seize the books in September 2010.
Raid details
Back then, Malaysian police raided Zunar's office in Kuala Lumpur and arrested the cartoonist under the Sedition Act. They also confiscated his drawing depicting Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, along with the then newly published book "Cartoon-O-Phobia."
In 2014, the Court of Appeal reaffirmed a decision by the Kuala Lumpur High Court in July 2012 that instructed police to return the books and the artwork.
"Today's decision is not about the quantum, but is a lesson to police and the Malaysian government that using criminal law arbitrarily to confiscate and destroy cartoon works is unacceptable and was done in bad faith," Zunar said in a statement.
More recently, Zunar was arrested while appearing at a charity event, "Tea with Zunar," on Dec. 17, 2016. Police seized more than 1,000 copies of his cartoon books, sketches and T-shirts, which he valued at around 40,000 ringgit ($9,000).
Zunar and four other people were taken to the Dang Wangi police station under Section 124 of the penal code covering activities deemed detrimental to democracy. He was released six hours later.
Less than a month earlier, on Nov. 25, 2016, Zunar was arrested under the Sedition Act and his artwork at an exhibit in George Town, Penang state, was confiscated. He was released the following day.
The winner of the 2016 Cartooning for Peace Award has been barred from leaving Malaysia since June 2016.
Zunar also faces nine sedition charges for allegedly insulting the judiciary in tweets made regarding the conviction of de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in a sodomy case in February 2015. If convicted on all charges Zunar could be sentenced to up to 43 years in jail.
Hata Wahari contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- The Philippine military announced Wednesday they had shot dead an Abu Sayyaf militant leader in a raid that, one expert said, signaled the country can defeat the Islamic State, which has used the local group to expand in Southeast Asia.
Muammar Askali (also known as Abu Rami), who appeared in videos of hostages being executed by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), died in a shootout Tuesday with security forces that also left three soldiers and a police officer dead as militants launched a failed raid on the central Philippine island resort of Bohol, news reports said.
Bohol is a popular tourist destination far from ASG's base in the southern Philippines.
"Askali is the leader of the IS Group in Sulu, composed mostly of ASG. His death demonstrates that both Philippines National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines can defeat IS in the Philippines," according to Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based expert on Southeast Asian extremist groups and a BenarNews columnist.
ASG has pledged its allegiance to Islamic State and, before his death, Abu Rami was working with Isnilon Hapilon, the leader of IS Philippines, Islamic State's local affiliate, he told BenarNews.
In late January, Isnilon was reported to have been injured in a strike carried out by the Philippine military in Lanao del Sur, on the southern island of Mindanao.
On Wednesday, security forces were hunting for more suspected ASG gunmen, following the foiled raid in which the militants were planning to kidnap as many as a dozen tourists from the area, Philippine Armed Forces Chief of Staff Eduardo Ano said.
Officials identified the body of Abu Rami through post-mortem photos shown to captured ASG suspects, and recovered the body from the scene of the gun battle in Inabanga, Bohol, Ano told the Associated Press.
"This is a major blow to the Abu Sayyaf," Ano said, according to AP. "If they have further plans to kidnap innocent people somewhere, they will now have to think twice."
Abu Rami led several militants who had traveled to Bohol by three speedboats from their jungle strongholds in the southern province of Sulu in an apparent bid to carry out kidnappings, Ano said.
"They are expecting probably to kidnap four or five persons per boat, so at least 10 to 12 kidnap victims was their (overall) plan," he said, according to Agence France-Presse.
In Jakarta on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Indonesian military welcomed the news of Abu Rami's death.
"We are also delighted. Abu Sayyaf is a terror group, which has terrorised many people, among them Indonesian citizens," military spokesman Maj. Gen. Wuryanto told BenarNews.
"So, we appreciate what has been done by the Philippines' military."
In the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, a security source told BenarNews that Abu Rami also held three Malaysian sailors who were rescued recently by the Philippines military.
"The Abu Sayyaf very rarely leave their strongholds in Tawi-Tawi and Jolo, and leave it to other criminals to do the kidnappings for them," the source said.
Meanwhile, the chief of police in Sabah as well as the head of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) did not respond immediately to requests for comment from BenarNews.
Group spokesman
ASG, a group linked with Islamic State, has become notorious for kidnapping and holding people hostage for ransom over the years, and has beheaded some of their Western captives. Since last year, the group has kidnapped dozens of Malaysian and Indonesian sailors off ships traveling in waters between the southern Philippines and Borneo island.
Most of the Indonesians and Malaysians have been freed, but Philippine officials said Abu Rami was involved directly in the video-taped executions of Canadian and German hostages in 2016 and 2017. Among other hostages beheaded by ASG was a Malaysian citizen, Bernard Then, who was abducted from a seaside restaurant in the eastern Malaysia state of Sabah in May 2015.
Abu Rami was known as a spokesman for ASG tasked with issuing messages to media about imminent executions and who appeared in videos showing beheadings of prisoners.
The failed raid in Bohor occurred on the day when the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia were scheduled to launch long-awaited joint patrols in common waters and aimed at warding off piracy and kidnappings at sea by ASG militants.
But the launch of the coordinated sea patrols, which was to take place from a naval base in Sabah, was postponed indefinitely, according to Malaysian officials, because the Philippine defense minister could not attend it due to conflicting travel plans.


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BENARNEWS- Lawyers for two Southeast Asian women charged with the murder of the half-brother of North Korea's leader on Thursday accused Malaysian authorities of withholding evidence for their defense, including statements gathered from three North Koreans who were allowed to go home.
The women, Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Hoang, appeared for a hearing Thursday at the Sepang Magistrate's Court under tight security. They potentially face the death penalty over allegations that they fatally poisoned Kim Jong Nam with an internationally banned chemical agent at a Kuala Lumpur area airport two months ago.
The attorneys representing the women said police had not responded to requests for evidence vital to the case, including CCTV footage of the attack and statements given to police by three North Korean men whom Malaysian authorities had initially named as suspects in Kim's murder.
"There shall be no trial by ambush," Gooi Soon Seng, Aiysah's lawyer, told the court.
Gooi added that Ri Ji U (also known as James), one of the three North Koreans allowed to return to Pyongyang on March 30 along with Kim's body, was a person "central to our defense."
"James played a key role in our defense, particularly [for] Siti Aisyah," the lawyer said.
"They were no longer persons of interest .... So we should be allowed to have access to the statements.
Justice has to be seen to be done and, importantly, for the accused to be given a fair trial," Gooi said.
The North Koreans were allowed to leave Malaysia as part of a deal that ended a six-week bilateral diplomatic feud following the Feb. 13 murder.
South Korea, the United States and Malaysia's prime minister had accused North Korea's government of orchestrating the murder of the half-brother of dictator Kim Jong Un.
'We always cooperate with counsels'
During the 30-minute hearing, prosecutor Muhammad Iskandar Ahmad responded by arguing that statements recorded by police were classified as privilege documents under Malaysia's Criminal Procedural Code, and therefore police were not obligated to hand them over to the defense.
Judge Harith Sham Mohamed Yasin adjourned the case till May 30.
Doan and Aisyah were both charged with murder on March 1. Apart from the three North Koreans who were allowed to go home, Malaysian authorities named four other North Koreans as suspects in Kim's homicide. Those suspects are believed to have fled Malaysia on the day Kim was attacked at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2.
The four were mentioned, though not identified by name, on the charge-sheets.
Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, the lawyer representing Doan, told the court that he had asked police to furnish evidence such as photos and records of communications on two phones seized from his client.
"Her two phones have been confiscated and police should disclose the records as it has vital and important information regarding the case," he said.
Elsewhere, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar responded to the complaints from the defense lawyers by suggesting that their requests might not have gone through the proper channels.
"It is impossible because we always cooperate with counsels in terms of providing documents to them," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. "No, there must have been a communications breakdown somewhere."
Yet, Khalid noted, not all documents related to the case can necessarily be released.
"It is up to us, with the clearance from AG [the attorney general] what documents can be given and need not be given. You can't be getting everything," the police inspector-general said.
Investigators were satisfied with the information given by the three North Koreans and the case had not been compromised by Malaysia's decision to let them go home, Khalid added.
Cousin says suspect is innocent
The two young women, who are the only suspects currently in custody in a case that has grabbed world headlines, have told police they were duped into carrying out the murder by being led to believe that they were playing a prank as part of a TV reality show.
The women were both spotted on CCTV footage during the airport attack on Kim, according to police. The seven North Korean suspects were also filmed by CCTV cameras at the airport on the day of the attack, police said.
Doan's cousin, Tran Huy Hoang, 23, who was in Sepang for Thursday's hearing, told reporters outside the courthouse that her family believes she was framed.
"She would not participate in the plot if she knew it's a crime," Tran said.
His cousin, he said, had graduated from a university in Vietnam and could speak English and Korean.
Tran, however, was barred from entering the court or the courthouse compound because he was not accompanied by Doan's father.
The father, Doan Van Thanh, had been advised by his daughter to stay at the Vietnamese embassy in Kuala Lumpur for his own safety, Tran told reporters.
Tran and his uncle had arrived in Malaysia on Monday and met with Doan for an hour on Wednesday, he said.
She looked healthy and was eating well, Tran reported.
"She wants her father to stay at the embassy until he returns to Vietnam," he said.
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Tran Huy Hoang speaks to reporters outside the court complex in Sepang, Malaysia, April 13, 2017. [N. Natha/BenarNews]


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BENARNEWS- Satirical cartoonist Zunar can challenge a Malaysian government directive banning him from leaving the country, a judge ruled Friday.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court gave Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, a BenarNews contributor whose pen name is Zunar, permission to start legal proceedings to challenge the travel ban that went into effect in June 2016.
During Friday's hearing, Judge Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab dismissed an objection by Malaysian public prosecutors over Zunar's application to be able to travel freely to other countries.
Zunar, who has been charged separately for alleged sedition for his cartoons that skewer Prime Minister Najib Razak, told BenarNews he was pleased with the decision because it moves him closer to being able to participate in international forums and events.
"The leave application is a first legal step before a judicial review challenge can be made," he said. "This is the first round. I hope there will be a good decision for me in the real challenge."
Zunar filed a lawsuit on Dec. 7, 2016, naming the immigration department director general, the home minister and the Malaysian government as respondents. His suit claims that the exit ban against him is unconstitutional.
The winner of the 2016 Cartooning for Peace Award learned of the ban when he was stopped from leaving Malaysia for a trip to Singapore to attend a forum on Oct. 17, 2016. An immigration officer told Zunar that the order came directly from Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar on June 24, 2016.
Damages awarded
The judge's ruling comes three days after a Malaysian court awarded damages to Zunar in a lawsuit against the government.
On Tuesday, the court awarded 18,000 ringgit (U.S $4,060) to Zunar over the government's seizure of 66 copies of his books and pieces of art-work nearly seven years ago.
Zunar has been arrested twice since November 2016 over allegations of sedition and "activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy" for cartoons critical of Malaysia's government and judiciary. Many of his cartoons are critical of Prime Minister Najib and the Malaysian government.
The cartoonist also faces nine sedition charges for tweets allegedly insulting the judiciary regarding the conviction of de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in a sodomy case in February 2015. If convicted, Zunar could face up to 43 years in jail.


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BENARNEWS- Five people including three members of Malaysia's Christian minority have been reported missing in recent months, with civil society and rights groups describing the cases as "unprecedented mysterious disappearances" and calling for prompt action by authorities.
Police have confirmed that at least one of the five, Pastor Raymond Koh Keng Joo, was abducted in February and classified the others as "missing people."
"The circumstances in which at least some of the individuals are reported to have been abducted calls for the government to increase efforts to establish their whereabouts and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice, including taking measures to prevent further disappearances," Shamini Darshni, the executive director of Amnesty International Malaysia, told BenarNews on Friday.
The influential Malaysian Bar Association said it was deeply troubled by the reported disappearances and called them unprecedented.
"It is shocking and outrageous that a growing number of Malaysians could inexplicably disappear and not be found for days, weeks and months. This has never happened before in this country, to the best of our knowledge, and has led to public perception and speculation of the occurrence of forced disappearances," George Varughese, president of the lawyers' group, said in a statement issued this week.
Two of the cases that date back to November 2016 are Christian clerics, and two others are activists known for their advocacy of social issues in Malaysia. The latest case was the suspected abduction of Koh on a road in a Kuala Lumpur suburb on Feb. 13. The incident occurred in broad daylight during as a CCTV camera filmed some cars, motorcycles and other vehicles surrounding his car, forcing him to stop and snatching him away.
Apart from demanding swift action by police in solving the cases, civil society groups also have been holding candlelight vigils.
This week, Malaysia's police chief lashed out over the publicity and speculation around the case of the Koh. Police Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar asked for different parties not disseminate information that could confuse people.
"You are only putting the life of the pastor in danger. We have cases where kidnappers will hold on to the victim for months, and will only respond when they think it is safe to respond," Khalid told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
"I would like to urge everyone to allow us to do our work and not put his life in danger. I should say, please shut up!" Khalid said.
Police are investigating all five cases and are treating Koh as a kidnapping victim but the other four as missing persons, Khalid told reporters.
Commenting on the case of social activist Peter Chong, who was reported missing earlier this month, Khalid said police had obtained pictures of him entering Thailand at a border crossing in northern Malaysia.
"We have immigration records and photos of him leaving the country. There is no record showing that he has returned to the country," Khalid said of Chong, according to the New Straits Times newspaper.
"I hope he will contact his family to inform them of his condition," the police inspector-general said, adding the authorities would take action against Chong "if his motive was to create panic in the country."
Other cases
The first of the five who went missing is Amri Che Mat, a social activist, co-founder of a local NGO and resident of the state of Perlis, who disappeared on Nov. 24. His disappearance may have been religiously motivated because allegations had circulated that he was spreading Shia Muslim teachings, which are frowned upon in the Sunni Muslim-majority country, according to local reports.
Witnesses reported seeing five vehicles block the path of his jeep, which was found empty and with its windshield smashed near a local dam.
The next case took place on Nov. 30 when a Christian couple, Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his wife, Ruth Seputih, also a preacher, were last seen at their home in Selangor state. A missing persons' report, however, was only filed on March 6, according to reports.
Although very little is known about the two, blog postings claim that Himly and his wife were both converts from Islam who had also converted other Muslims to Christianity.
Malaysia is home to about 19.5 million Muslims that make up more than 60 percent of its population. Buddhists, Hindus and Christians live side by side with Muslims, but religious matters are not discussed publicly and are highly sensitive issues.
Regarding the case of Koh, the local NGO that he heads, Harapan Komuniti (Hope Communty), was probed by Islamic authorities in 2011 for allegedly holding a party with Muslim attendees at a church, according to reports.
The missing pastor also was the target of allegations that he had tried to convert Muslim youths to Christianity. The accusation leveled against the group was proselytization, which is considered an offense in Malaysia, reports said.
A well-known mufti from the state of Amri, Professor Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, said people should not insinuate that religion was a factor in the cases of these missing people unless they had proof.
"Each religion, whether Islam or otherwise, shall comply with national laws to ensure the safety and welfare of the people. No religion can act alone in a country that has a legitimate government like Malaysia," he told BenarNews, adding that his faith prohibits kidnapping.
"Islam prohibits acts of violence and hostility between religions without a valid reason," he said.
Fairuz Mazlan and N. Natha contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Launching a new legal effort to win back his freedom, jailed de facto Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim filed a lawsuit Monday alleging that the government falsified evidence that led to his five-year sentence on a sodomy charge.
The lawsuit alleges that Anwar's conviction was based on perjured testimony by his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, the prosecution's main witness, whom the founder of the opposition People's Justice Party PKR) was accused of sodomizing.
Anwar's attorneys filed the suit on his behalf at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, naming the Malaysian government as the defendant.
"Saiful had testified perjured evidence under oath known by the defendant as false," Anwar's lawsuit stated. "The defendant fabricated false evidence in the form of an alleged DNA sample and used it to support the perjured evidence of Saiful."
In December 2016, Anwar, 69, lost his final appeal to be freed from prison after the Federal Court, the country's highest court, rejected his application to review his conviction by the lower Court of Appeal.
The High Court acquitted Anwar in 2012 but the Court of Appeal reversed that decision and sentenced him in 2014 to five years in prison.
In January, the Court of Appeal allowed Anwar to pursue a legal challenge to a decision by the Pardons Board that went against him in March 2015.
Unless Anwar is pardoned, he cannot challenge Prime Minister Najib Razak in a general election expected to take place in mid-2018 because Malaysian law disqualifies a convict from running for political office.
According to the new lawsuit filed by Anwar, the Malaysian government fraudulently and intentionally brought forward the aide as the main prosecution witness although it had proof that the aide was unreliable.
Because of Saiful's alleged fraud, the lawsuit stated, Court of Appeal and Federal Court judgments are invalid and must be set aside as provided under Section 44 of the Evidence Act.
Anwar's lawyer said new facts would be presented during a hearing on the claim.
"Anwar is innocent. We will prove his innocence in court," lawyer N. Surendran said.
Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, and daughter, Nurul Nuha, were with Surendran at the courthouse.
"Even a single day spent in jail is cruel for an innocent man," said Wan Azizah, who serves as president of the People's Justice Party.
This is Anwar's second sodomy conviction.
In 2004, he was acquitted of a sodomy charge filed in 1998. He claimed then that he was framed by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the party that leads Malaysia's ruling bloc, and that was led at the time by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
Malaysian government officials and UMNO leaders have denied framing Anwar.
Mahathir has since left the party and has joined with Anwar in criticizing the current prime minister, Najib.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian government officials held a high-level meeting Monday in the eastern state of Sabah on safeguarding the region near the Islamic militant-infested southern Philippines from kidnappings at sea amid other security concerns.
Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and state Chief Minister Musa Aman co-chaired the first meeting of the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZONE) Advisory Board, which included the national security chief and heads of the armed forces, national police and Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).
ESSZONE's advisory board was established by Prime Minister Najib Razak in January to strengthen security in eastern Sabah and improve coordination among various agencies working in the region, the state-run Bernama news agency reported.
"This is to ensure that security threats such as kidnapping for ransom, smuggling, entry of illegal immigrants and a second infiltration by the Sulu Sultanate militants can be prevented or appropriately tacked," the statement said, according to Bernama. It was referring to an incursion in the state by an armed group from the Philippines calling itself the Royal Sulu Army, and that local security forces put down four years ago.
The meeting in state capital Kota Kinabalu took place against the backdrop of ongoing concerns about maritime kidnappings carried out by Abu Sayyaf Group militants based in the southern Philippines. Since 2016, dozens of Malaysian and Indonesian sailors have been abducted by suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen off ships sailing in waters between northern Borneo island and the southern Philippines. Most of the hostages have been freed.
'They can enter Sabah easily'
A Malaysian security source said the government is concerned about the threats of movements across the Sabah-Philippines border by militants linked to Islamic State. Members of several militant groups based in the southern Philippines have pledged their allegiance to the Middle East-based extremist group.
"They can enter Sabah easily and easily hide among the huge numbers of migrants already living and working in Sabah," the source told BenarNews on condition of anonymity.
Last week, Philippine forces killed six suspected ASG gunmen, while thwarting a raid by Islamic militants on Bohol island, a popular tourist destination in the Central Philippines. The slain suspects included Muammar Askali (also known as Abu Rami), an Islamic State-linked spokesman for ASG who allegedly had participated in kidnappings and executions carried out by Abu Sayyaf, the Philippine military said.
At least three southern Philippine militant groups linked with Islamic State were involved in the Bohol raid in which militants were allegedly plotting to carry out a bombing and kidnap tourists from the area that lies far from their traditional strongholds in the south, according to a report by the Associated Press over the weekend.
Apart from Askali, another key Abu Sayyaf figure, Edimar Isnain was among the six militants who died during a shootout that also killed three soldiers and a police officer, according to the AP report that cited information from three anonymous Philippine security officials. Edimar had worked with Malaysian and Indonesian militants in building bombs and training ASG recruits to handle explosives.
Although Askali was accused of playing a direct role in some maritime kidnappings and the video-taped execution of hostages, including Malaysian Bernard Then, the militant's death does not mean that cross-border crime will diminish, the security source in Malaysia told BenarNews.
"With the Philippines military in hot pursuit of the militants, we have to make sure they don't slip across into our borders. They can hide out for long periods of time, and then strike when least expected," the official added.
New Sabah role for defense minister
In other developments related to security in Sabah, the Malaysian government announced last week that Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein would add to his portfolio a new role as the so-called Special Functions Minister in charge of security in the eastern state.
"My main task now is to help the prime minister with safeguarding security in Sabah," The Star newspaper quoted Hishammuddin as saying on Monday.
However, the defense minister did not attend Monday's ESSZONE Advisory Board meeting in Sabah. He spoke to the newspaper in Kuala Lumpur after taking part in a monthly assembly at the Defense Ministry.
An earlier version reported incorrectly that ESSZONE was established by the prime minister in January 2017.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB this year will pay out U.S. $1.2 billion (5.2 billion ringgit) to an Abu Dhabi-based firm as part of arbitration to settle a loan it defaulted on last year, the London Stock Exchange said Monday.
1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) will pay International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC) two installments of $600 million (2.6 billion ringgit) on July 31 and Dec. 31, respectively, under terms of a deal which began last year at the London Court of International Arbitration.
The cash-strapped and state-run Malaysian fund is the target of money-laundering probes in at least a half-dozen countries, and has been tied to corruption allegations surrounding Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has denied any wrong doing.
In a statement released Monday, 1MDB said it would cash out investment funds to make the payments and already had $50 million (219 million ringgit) available. Additionally, 1MDB said it would assume responsibility for a pair of $1.75 billion (7.7 billion ringgit) bonds due in 2022.
But according to a former member of Najib's ruling United Malay National Organization (UMNO) party, who traveled to Switzerland, Britain, France and Hong Kong to draw attention to alleged corruption and financial mismanagement at 1MDB, the settlement shows that taxpayers will be footing the bill to repay the loan to the firm in the United Arab Emirates.
"Najib Razak had said it would not involve the government and Malaysians, but it seems the people are ones who will be paying up the debts of 1MDB," Khairuddin Abu Hassan told BenarNews.
1MDB defaulted on $1.75 billion in bonds after missing an interest payment of $50 million in April 2016, Agence France-Presse reported. Two months later, Abu Dhabi announced it was seeking $6.5 billion through international arbitration.
Prime Minister Najib Razak accepted the settlement.
"The government is pleased that IPIC and 1MDB have resolved their differences in an amicable manner," press secretary Tengku Sarifudin said Monday in a statement.
1MDB called the settlement and efforts to cash out investment funds major parts of a so-called rationalization program now in its final stages. Last year, CNBC reported the rationalization program of selling off assets was launched in May 2015 to reduce 1MDB's debt burden, which had grown to $11 billion (42 billion ringgit).
Settlement questioned
The arbitration deal agreed to between 1MDB and the Emirati firm does not appear to be related to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking restitution of more than $1 billion in assets purchased with money stolen from 1MDB, or reports that Najib received nearly $700 million in personal accounts from 1MDB funds prior to 2013 elections. Najib has been identified as Malaysian Official 1 who was named dozens of times in the DOJ lawsuit.
Malaysian lawyer Mohamad Haniff Khatri Abdulla, who has been speaking out against 1MDB, told BenarNews that "all foreign agencies should increase their efforts" to bring 1MDB money laundering investigations to their respective courts.
Last year, Malaysia Attorney General Apandi Ali cleared the prime minister of any wrongdoing and Najib has denied taking any 1MDB-linked money for personal gain. Apandi could not be reached for comment on Monday's settlement.
No one has been charged in a Malaysian court over the 1MDB scandals, but at least five people have been charged and two banks have been closed in neighboring Singapore.
Meanwhile, a lawmaker from Malaysia's political opposition issued a statement late Monday saying that the settlement would "only benefit the infamous Malaysian Official 1, Prime Minister Najib Razak and his friends."
"The settlement essentially allows Najib Razak to avoid a trial which would have opened a gigantic can of worms," said Wong Chen, a member of parliament representing Kelana Jaya. "Instead of justice and closure, this settlement today further ingrains the culture of corruption and impunity in Malaysia at the expense of the people."
Hata Wahari in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian court convicted and sentenced a former postgraduate student of religion to five years in prison Wednesday on charges of possessing books allegedly promoting the ideology of extremist groups, including Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled the sentence for defendant Siti Noor Aishah Atam Jusoh be back-dated to her arrest in March 2016 and the 12 books in her possession be destroyed.
"I'm not good at commenting on the decision but will file an appeal within 14 days," Atam Jusoh, the father of the 30-year-old defendant, told BenarNews.
In sentencing Siti Noor Aishah, a former postgraduate student of Islamic studies at University Malaya, one of Malaysia's top universities, the judge argued it was unreasonable for the defendant to make the case the books were for her academic research.
"You claimed the books were for your thesis but you never even registered the thesis title," High Court Judicial Commissioner Mohamad Shariff Abu Samah said.
"This did not make sense at all. You have not been able to prove your seriousness in going through with the course."
The judge told Siti Aishah to repent.
"Terrorism is a serious crime that is also deplorable. We cannot compromise on this matter, the court views it very seriously," the judge added.
Siti Aishah was sentenced a day after the high court sent Azizi Abdullah, a 21-year-old shop assistant, to prison for 13 years for possessing pro-IS materials on his mobile phone and posting messages on social media endorsing terrorist acts.
Since 2013, Malaysian authorities have arrested at least 294 people suspected of having links to IS alone, of whom 66 have since been freed, according to government figures obtained by BenarNews.
'A bright future'
Siti Noor Aishah was convicted under Section 130JB of Malaysia's Penal Code and the Security Offenses Act (Special Measures) 2012 (Sosma) for possessing items or materials associated with terrorist organizations.
She was represented by attorney Mohd Kamaruzaman A. Wahab while Deputy Public Prosecutor Ahmad Nazneen Zulkifli argued the case on behalf of the people.
Previously, Kamaruzaman had asked for lenient sentence for his client because she is still young.
"Siti Aishah has a bright future. She has now repented. She bought the books because she loves reading, and before the books were banned by the Home Ministry," the lawyer had said.
Ahmad Nazneen pressed for a tougher sentence, arguing that Siti Aishah and others who support militant groups needed to learn a lesson. The maximum sentence that the defendant faced was seven years.
The books that got her into trouble with the authorities included titles such as "Al-Zarqawi – al-Qaeda's Second Generation," "Political Vision of the Jihad Movement," and "From Osama to Activists at-Large."
Since her arrest, Siti Aishah was suspended from Universiti Malaya and later expelled for failure to attend classes.
In September 2016, she was acquitted of the charges at the same court. However, on the same day, she was rearrested and detained for 60 days under a different law, the Prevention of Crime Act (POCA).
Upon her release, she was placed under house arrest and fitted with an electronic monitoring device.
A higher court, Court of Appeal then ordered Siti Aishah to enter her defense. On March 29, she was arrested under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) and placed in Kajang prison.
A father's agony
After she was arrested the second time, her father held a press conference at the houses of parliament, where he made a plea for his daughter's release.
The 61-year-old said his daughter had merely been instructed by one of her lecturers to do research on the books that led to her arrest.
"I'm disappointed with what has happened to my daughter. I urge the authorities to release her immediately so that she can continue her studies further," Atam said, sobbing, according to local reports.
Civil society activists and opposition lawmakers have come to Siti Aishah's defense, holding candlelight vigils outside Kajang Prison and calling on the Home Ministry to release her.


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BENARNEWS- The case of an 11-year-old boy who died Wednesday after his legs were amputated following an alleged beating by an official at a religious school is being investigated as a homicide, Malaysia's police chief said.
Mohamad Thaqif Amin Mohd Gaddafi died at 2:05 p.m. Wednesday (local time). Doctors at the Hospital Sultan Ismail had considered amputating his right arm on Wednesday but his condition had deteriorated, according to reports.
They had amputated his legs on Friday in a futile attempt to save him.
The case has angered and shocked Malaysians from all walks, with politicians and other leaders calling on authorities to investigate it and punish the alleged perpetrator.
"The case has been reclassified under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder," Malaysian Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said on his twitter account Wednesday. "Police are waiting for the full medical report and will complete the investigation as soon as possible."
Thaqif was allegedly beaten with a water hose by an assistant warden at the "Tahfiz" Islamic school, who was arrested on Saturday.
Images showing the boy's bruised and legs have circulated on social media. The avid football player was admitted to the hospital in Johor on April 19 and underwent amputation surgery on Friday.
The suspect, a 29-year-old convicted thief, allegedly used the hose to whip the boy and several other students as punishment at the religious school in Johor's Kota Tinggi district. He had served 30 months for theft and was working at the private school for about a year, according to police.
On Wednesday, a district court extended the suspect's remand through Saturday, after a four-day remand following his arrest over the weekend expired. Police are investigating the incident under Section 31 of the Child Protection Act.
Mohamad Thaqif's body was returned to his family's village late night Wednesday after undergoing a post-mortem exam at the hospital. Family members had not decided if they would bury him late Wednesday or Thursday, reports said.
In Malaysia, private religious schools are not regulated by the Education Ministry, which has strict guidelines for bodily punishment of students.
Hafiz Abdul, a citizen, said the government must improve monitoring of privately run Islamic schools.
"These tahfiz schools need good governance. Now it has become a place where parents place their kids in the hands of dubious staff or teachers who were not properly monitored," Hafiz Abdul told BenarNews.
Nation expresses condolences
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Najib Razak and opposition leader Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, of the People's Justice Party (PKR), both expressed shock over the boy's death.
"I am sad to receive news of Mohd Thaqif Amin's death at the Hospital Sultan Ismail, Johor Baru. Condolences to the family," Najib said on his Facebook page Wednesday.
"I want the investigations to be accelerated so that we know the cause of his death and for legal actions to be taken if there was an offense."
Wan Azizah, wife of jailed de-facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, also offered condolences to Thaqif's family.
"Please be strong and persevere. God willing, there is already a place for him in heaven," she said.
Johor Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar posted a photo of the boy on his official social media pages.
"May his soul be blessed and be placed among the righteous and pious," the official Facebook and Instagram post read.
Others took to social media as well.
"I'm a parent and this is heart breaking. No parents should ever bury their child," Michelle Teh wrote on Facebook. "He suffered so much and his passing is a way of God showing that he need not suffer anymore but be at peace. RIP."
Some expressed anger over the beating.
"Everyone feels the painful loss of such an innocent bright-looking boy being robbed of life for no fault of his own. Real sad. RIP boy," Chow Ship Kuan wrote on Facebook.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian police Wednesday announced the recent arrests of six Islamic State (IS) suspects and said they had warned Thai authorities about a seventh one, an alleged firearms smuggler, who fled across the border into southern Thailand.
The arrests occurred in several Malaysian states from late March to late April and the suspect at-large, 27-year-old Muhammad Muzaffa Arieff Junaidi, escaped to Thailand by crossing the Golok River along the border on March 22, Malaysia's police chief said. The suspect was armed with an M4 carbine assault rifle and pistol.
One of the six suspects in custody was a 26-year-old female college student in the Malaysian capital, who was arrested at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on April 4 after being deported by Turkish authorities, Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement.
"The woman had left the country for Turkey on Aug. 29, 2016, to join IS in Syria. On Feb. 5, she was nabbed by Turkish authorities while awaiting orders from Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi to enter Syria," Khalid said, referring to a Malaysian IS militant based in Syria.
The suspect on the run, Muhammad Muzaffa, hails from the village of Gertak, Rantau Panjang, in Kelantan state, which lies just across Malaysia's border with Thailand, Khalid said, adding that two other members of Muzaffa's weapons-smuggling cell were nabbed in the same state days later.
Across the border in Thailand's insurgency-wracked Deep South, Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich, the commander of the 4th Army regional command, said police and military were searching for Muzaffa.
[https://www]
Malaysian police released the picture of suspect Muhammad Muzaffa Arieff Junaidi, who is believed to have fled to southern Thailand on March 22. [Courtesy of Malaysian police]
"We know that there are natural passes between Thailand and Malaysia, but I don't want the public to get panicky because it can be false information," Piyawat told reporters, adding, "Violence in Deep South certainly has nothing to do with the IS."
In Bangkok, Thai Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha said no Thais were involved with the Middle East-based extremist group Islamic State and that the government was prepared to deal with the suspect if he were caught.
"The security officials are looking into this issue, and if we find him, we will coordinate to send him back. It is sensitive so I don't want to disclose that much information," Prayuth told reporters at Government House on Wednesday.
Malaysian suspects
The six Malaysian suspects, including two women, were rounded up by the Federal Police Counter-Terrorism division in the states of Melaka, Johor, Kelantan, Penang and Selangor, from March 24 to April 25, according to Khalid.
"The first two suspects, ages 26 and 41, were arrested in Kelantan on March 24 and 25, respectively. The duo was responsible for smuggling firearms into the country from Southern Thailand, for use by IS militants in Malaysia," he said.
A security official said the two suspects had been smuggling weapons into Malaysia for almost a year. "The weapons smuggled from syndicates in southern Thailand into Kelantan are worth about 6,000 ringgit (U.S. $1,400)," the official, who requested anonymity, told BenarNews.
Another suspect was a 41-year-old unemployed man who had joined IS in Syria and was arrested in the state of Malacca on April 20, according to Khalid. A 32-year-old woman who worked as an assistant engineer in Johor and had been promoting IS online, was arrested on the same day.
"The sixth suspect was arrested in Penang on April 25. The 41-year-old man, who was also unemployed, had been actively promoting IS through 15 Facebook pages that belonged to him, since 2014.
"The suspect had also been planning to launch attacks on Shiite mosques in Penang," Khalid said without naming the mosques.
He said all six suspects were being held under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012, which allows police to hold suspects for 28 days without charges.
Since 2013, Malaysian authorities have arrested 300 people suspected of having links to IS, of whom 66 have since been freed, according to the latest figures obtained by BenarNews.
Last month, Khalid said 49 Malaysian IS militants were planning to return to Malaysia and eight had already returned.
"Some of them, whose husbands have been killed, the wives married other IS militants. Their children are under the care of other militant families," he said.
Doubts about Wanndy
As for Muhammad Wanndy, whom the United States recently named a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist," Malaysian authorities are challenging an account said to have been posted by his wife on Facebook post, in which she claimed that her husband was killed by a drone strike in Syria.
"We doubt this report and we are checking whether indeed he was killed," Khalid said.  "There could be reasons for Wanndy to actually stage his own death, we know."
BenarNews staff in the Thai Deep South contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS-Malaysian authorities have arrested two Turkish citizens for suspected involvement in activities threatening national security, the country's police chief said Wednesday as Human Rights Watch voiced concern that the men could be locked up and tortured if sent back home.

The two Turks – Turgay Karaman, a principal at an international school in the Malaysian state of Perak, and businessman Ihsan Aslan – were reported missing by family members overnight.

A CCTV camera filmed Karaman, 43, being forced into a car by five unknown men in the basement of a Kuala Lumpur building while he was about to meet his lawyer on Tuesday, according to reports. The footage was circulated on social media, and a copy of the police report on the incident was seen by BenarNews. 

"Malaysian police would like to confirm T. Karaman and I. Aslan were arrested yesterday for involvement in activities that threaten the safety and security of Malaysia under Section 130 of the Penal Code," Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar announced on his Twitter account on Wednesday.

His message gave no more details. 

Ahmet Dogan, first secretary of the Turkish Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, declined to comment to BenarNews on whether the arrests in Malaysia were carried out at Ankara's request, or say anything else about their cases.

Terrorist ties?

According to a report published on Wednesday by state-run Turkish news agency Anadolu, the two men are believed to be linked to U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen.
He lives in exile in the United States, and his movement has been branded a terrorist organization by the government of President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan. It has accused Gülen of masterminding an attempted coup in Turkey in July 2016. Forces loyal to Erdogan crushed the coup, during which 265 people, including 161 civilians, were killed.
When they were arrested in Malaysia, Karaman and Aslan were set to testify in a Malaysian court as defense witnesses in a case against Turkish Ismet Ozcelik, according to Anadolu. 

Ozcelik was arrested on Dec. 13, 2016 after he allegedly stopped plainclothes Malaysian immigration officers from checking his passport at his son's home in Kuala Lumpur, the news agency reported. Malaysian authorities held him for 50 days following his arrest, but they freed him on Jan. 31, when he obtained U.N. refugee status.

The Anadolu report did not specify what charges Ozcelik faces in Malaysia.
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Turgay Karaman [BenarNews]
A friend of Karaman, Suheyl Ozcelik, filed a missing persons report with police, saying he feared that the school principal would face the fate of two other friends who were deported to Turkey last year for alleged links to Gülen's faith-based movement. 

Turkish nationals Alettin Duman and Tamer Tibik were arrested by Malaysian authorities and extradited by Turkey in October. 

Gülen's movement, known as "hizmet" or "service" in the Turkish language, operates schools and nongovernmental organizations in Europe, Africa and Asia. 

Meanwhile, Aslan's 38-year-old wife, Malaysian Ainnurul Aisyah Yunos Ali Maricar, told reporters that GPS tracking had located the last position of her husband's mobile phone at the Malaysian Defense Ministry.

"Based on GPS readings, we tracked his movements and he was last seen near the defense ministry building. Since then, his phone has been switched off," she said, adding that CCTV footage showed he had left the building at 9 p.m. on Tuesday.

"I will continue and keep asking him to be tried fairly. I want him to be free," she said, adding that Aslan had been living in Malaysia for 15 years. 

Also on Wednesday, Phil Robertson, a deputy Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch, condemned the reported disappearances of Karaman and Aslan.

"These disappearances demand urgent investigation, with a priority placed on making sure that these two men are found and under no circumstances forcibly removed from Malaysia and sent to Turkey," Robertson said in a statement .

"There is little doubt that if they are returned to Turkey, they will face torture in detention, and if charged with crimes there, be subjected to a trial that will fall far short of fair trial standards."

His statement apparently came out before Khalid announced the men's arrests.

"If it is learned that these two men are being held by any branch of the Malaysian government, the relevant agencies must immediately announce where the men are being held and the legal grounds for their detention, and for a start, provide immediate, unfettered access to both their family members and their lawyers," Robertson said.
[https://www]
Ihsan Aslan [BenarNews]
Hata Wahari contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities are investigating two Turkish citizens in custody for suspected links to the Islamic State terrorist group, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Thursday.
Turgay Karaman and Ihsan Aslan, whose arrests were announced a day earlier, are being investigated for allegations of helping to fund IS and are being held under an anti-terror law that allows authorities to hold suspects for 28 days without charge, Zahid told reporters in Putrajaya.

Zahid, who is also Malaysia's home minister, said the two Turks had been under police surveillance and were arrested under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012, also known as SOSMA.
"The anti-terrorism unit under the police's special branch has been closely following the movements of several individuals involved in the spreading of influence and the funding of activities related to Daesh," Zahid said, using another name for IS.
Zahid gave more details about the arrests, a day after Human Rights Watch raised concerns about the prospect of the Turkish citizens being arrested and tortured if Malaysia deported them to their home country. Karaman is a principal at an international school in the Malaysian state of Perak, and Aslan is a businessman who also lives in Malaysia.
"The Malaysian police Counter Messaging Center intercepted communications, which had links to Daesh (IS), by both men," Zahid said.
"We had followed the movements of some individuals who are involved in spreading and providing funds to IS-related activities, including two Turkish citizens," the deputy prime minister added, without elaborating.
He promised humane treatment for the detainees.
"Do not worry," he said, "we will not oppress anyone if they are not involved or their levels of involvement are minimal." But he added: "if there is strong evidence, detention will be made in accordance with existing legislation and we will confirm with Turkish authorities."
Separately, Malaysian Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the arrests were made without any pressure from the Turkish government.
"No, no. There is no request from anybody," he said. "It is due to their own wrongdoing."
Khalid declined to give details on the men's alleged IS links.
"I do not want to talk much," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. "We do not welcome people who are causing problems here. We do not welcome foreigners here to cause any problem to our people and our country."
He also did not respond to questions about whether the pair would be deported.
Commenting on the case of the Turks who had been reported missing earlier in the week, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, urged Malaysian authorities to make sure that "under no circumstances" they be "forcibly removed from Malaysia and sent to Turkey."
"There is little doubt that if they are returned to Turkey, they will face torture in detention, and if charged with crimes there, be subjected to a trial that will fall far short of fair trial standards," he said.
Other IS suspects
The Turks' arrests were among several arrests in Malaysia of people with suspected links to IS that were announced this week.
Police on Wednesday publicized the arrests of six Malaysians with suspected ties to IS, who were taken into custody through counter-terrorist operations launched in several states from late March to late April. A seventh suspect with IS links fled to neighboring Thailand, police said.
The six suspects in custody are also being held under SOSMA, according to Khalid, the police inspector-general. Since 2013, Malaysian authorities have arrested at least 300 people suspected of having links to the Middle East-based terror group, of whom 66 have since been freed, according to the latest figures obtained from the government by BenarNews.
Connections to Gülen?
On Wednesday, Khalid broke the news about the arrests of the two Turks, saying in a message posted on Twitter that they were picked up "because they threatened the security of Malaysia."
But he was not more specific.
The wives of the Turks denied the allegations.
"They have never hurt anyone," the Star newspaper quoted Ayse Gul Karaman, the 38-year-old wife of Karaman, as saying Thursday.
Anadolu, the Turkish state news agency, said the pair was believed to be linked to U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, who faces accusations of organizing a failed coup in Turkey last year.
Gülen, whose Hizmet movement runs about 2,000 educational establishments around the world, lives in exile in the United States. His movement has been branded a terrorist organization by the government of President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan. It has accused Gülen of being behind an attempted coup in July 2016, during which 265 people, including 161 civilians, were killed.
Forces loyal to Erdogan quickly crushed the putsch as he declared a state of emergency and ordered troops to detain thousands of people accused of involvement in the bid to overthrow him. The crackdown included Gülen's alleged supporters.
Gülen has gone on the record to condemn terrorism committed by IS.
"I deplore the brutal atrocities being committed by the ISIS terrorist group hiding behind a false religious rhetoric ...," the cleric said, referring to IS by a different acronym, after the group disseminated an online video showing the beheading in 2014 of captured American journalist James Foley.


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BENARNEWS- Civil rights groups and internet group-chat administrators said Malaysia's new guideline for social media and messaging platforms is a tool to silence government critics and obstruct freedom of expression.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) late Wednesday released a list of six do's and six don'ts targeted to administrators of WhatsApp and other platforms including Facebook, WeChat, Viber and Telegram.
"Such guidelines are intrusive into the privacy of citizens and their freedom of speech and certainly inconsistent with democratic practices," Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen told BenarNews on Friday.
He called the guideline unnecessary and pushed for the MCMC to tackle real internet crimes, including criminal intimidation and scams.
The do's outlined by the MCMC include: administrators should make clear the reason for the chat group; establish ground rules; comment on posts to ensure the discussion stays on track; consider removing those who consistently post inappropriate content; and cooperate with by enforcement agency investigations.
Its don'ts for administrators include: don't be absent from their groups; don't breach conditions set by the platform providers; don't encourage or incite offensive posts; don't allow discussions to wander off topic; don't be afraid to deal with "trolls"; and don't hinder investigations by enforcement agencies.
Warning issued
The guideline followed a warning by Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Jailani Johari on April 27 that WhatsApp group-chat administrators would face legal action for failing to stop the spread of fake news.
MCMC clarified his statement by adding other social media groups to the warning and said investigations would be carried out only if complaints were made about content being shared by the group.
"It should be stressed that any investigation will not differentiate between an administrator and a member of the group. If the administrator or any member of the group were found to spread false information, then legal action can be taken against them," MCMC stated at the time.
Wednesday's guideline targeted administrators only.
Critics pointed out that punishment provisions exist under the Communication and Multimedia Act targeting the spread of fake news, libel, fraud and exposure of classified information under the Official Secrets Act. The new guideline does not establish new or additional punishments.
"It is an excuse to crackdown and intimidate government critics, rather than a sincere or practical attempt at addressing real issues," Paulsen said.
On Friday, Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak said MCMC merely was advising users and has no "involvement in any activities of spying conversations."
"Hence, beware of fake news," he told The New Straits Times.
Shamini Darshni, the executive director of Amnesty International Malaysia, disagreed, saying these platforms should be places to freely express beliefs and ideas without fear of interference.
"The MCMC guideline does nothing to protect the shrinking space for free expression," she told BenarNews. "The guideline's purpose is unclear and there should be an explanation."
A Whatsapp administrator, who asked to be identified as Patrick, asked whether a special team will "snoop into people's private conversations."
"If the action is taken based on complaints, what if there is a 'snitch' in my group who lodges a false complaint against me with the authorities? Will I be hauled up for that?" the marketing executive who manages several WhatsApp groups among family and work colleagues told BenarNews.
Another administrator had similar concerns.
"Often, those who share unverified news in my family group are the elderly family members. I have often corrected them, saying it is a hoax, but when they keep doing it, how can I 'warn' them, or kick them out of the group?" an administrator of several Whatsapp groups who asked to be identified as Sheena told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- A third Turkish national has been arrested in Malaysia this week on security-related charges as authorities rejected suggestions that the actions were taken at the behest of the Turkish government tracking down critics abroad linked to a failed coup last year.
Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said on Friday that Ismet Ozcelik, a 58-year-old academic who has been given refugee status by the United Nations, was arrested Thursday evening.
Khalid said Ozcelik and the two other Turkish nationals arrested a day earlier were a threat to the security of the country.
The two – international school principal Turgay Karaman and businessman Ihsan Aslan – had been linked by Turkish media to U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom the Turkish government accuses of masterminding a failed coup on July 15, 2016.
Khalid rejected suggestions that the arrests were triggered by orders from the Turkish government.
"Why do we want to wait for orders from other country to make arrest here," he asked reporters. "We have our own laws, we take care of the security of our people and our country so it is our right to decide who we want to arrest."
UN expresses concern
The United Nations Human Rights Office for Southeast Asia on Friday expressed serious concern about the arrests and urged the Malaysian government to refrain from deporting the trio to Turkey.
"There are concerns that these men may have been targeted over their suspected links to the Gulen movement which is accused of being behind a coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016," said Laurent Meillan, acting regional representative of the U.N. Human Rights Office in Bangkok.
The U.N. office noted that Malaysia had detained and deported two other Turkish nationals in October 2016.
It said that they were arrested upon their return to Turkey where they remain in detention without trial.
"We are very concerned that the three men arrested this week may face the same fate as the other two individuals deported to Turkey last year," Meillan said.
"We call on the Malaysian government to ensure that the three men are given a fair trial in Malaysia and urge authorities not to extradite them as we have serious concerns regarding their safety if they are deported to Turkey."
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Malaysian authorities to provide the basis for holding the Turkish men and to allow them full access to legal counsel and contact with their families.
"Malaysia's administrative detention laws open the doors to easy abuse, so it's important for the government to provide the men's location and to allow them immediate access to their families and legal counsel," said Phil Robertson, HRW's deputy Asia director.
Counter-terrorism efforts
Malaysia and Turkey have been cooperating closely on counter-terrorism.
Turkey deported several Malaysians who wanted to enter Syria via Turkey to join Islamic State (IS).
Meanwhile, a lawyer representing Karaman and Ozcelik said he was not allowed by the Malaysian authorities to meet his clients.
"We were not able to meet Ismet and Turgay. We can only meet them on Thursday. Even the family," Muhammad Faizal Faiz Mohd Hasani told BenarNews.
Ozcelik was a board member of Mevlana University in the province of Konya in Turkey. The university was among the many that have been closed in 2016 because of its alleged ties to the Gulen movement.
He was arrested in December for allegedly obstructing Malaysian Immigration Department officers from carrying out their duty, but freed on bail in January.
State-run Turkish news agency Anadolu said he was freed after he managed to secure U.N. refugee status, which it said provided him with immunity against detention without trial.
Karaman and Aslan were arrested for alleged links to IS, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said on Thursday. Khalid declined to confirm the IS links on Friday.
"Again, the suspects were arrested for threatening the security of the country," he said, declining to give specific reasons for the three arrests.
"We have enough reasons to take action," Khalid said, adding that the three arrests were linked.
"There is no need for outsiders to come here and threaten the security of our country," he said. "Do not bring your country's problem into our country."
Gülen's movement, known as "hizmet" or "service" in the Turkish language, operates schools and nongovernmental organizations in Europe, Africa and Asia.
His movement has been branded a terrorist organization by the Turkish government. Gulen denies government charges he was behind the coup.


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BENARNEWS- A leading Southeast Asian recruiter for Islamic State whom authorities had blamed for orchestrating the first terrorist attack claimed by IS on Malaysian soil was killed in Syria last month, Malaysia's police chief confirmed Monday.
Reports of the killing of Malaysian national and IS militant Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi surfaced on April 29 after his wife announced his death on her Facebook page, but Malaysian officials declined to confirm it then.
"After we gathered all intelligence, the Royal Malaysian Police has confirmed that Muhammad Wanndy was killed in an attack in Raqqa, Syria, on April 29," Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar posted on his Facebook and Twitter accounts Monday.
Officials declined to say how Wanndy was killed. His death brings to at least 31 the number of Malaysians linked to IS who have been in killed in Syria or Iraq since 2014, according to figures obtained from the Malaysian government.
"We cannot provide details on Wanndy's death as it involves intelligence from other parties," a top-level Malaysian security official told BenarNews on condition of anonymity.
Wanndy was known as an IS recruiter who was active on social media. Two years ago, Malaysian authorities identified him as having taken part with another Malaysian man in filming an IS execution-video that was posted online.
In late March the U.S. Treasury Department declared Wanndy a Specially Designated  Global Terrorist, alleging that the IS fighter based in Syria and Iraq coordinated planning for terrorist plots as well as facilitated travel to the Middle East from Southeast Asia for young IS recruits.
When BenarNews reported about his new designation by the United States, Wanndy posted a link to the article on his own Facebook page.
'A highly motivated operative with a vast network'
When Wanndy's wife, Nor Mahmudah Ahmad, posted the news about his death, her announcement was removed from Facebook a short time later.
But on the same day, a pro-IS poster identified as Akhi Hamzah shared what he called Wanndy's final Facebook posting where he stated, "Tomorrow I will travel far ... excited to go to a place I have never been to."
Another IS supporter, identified as Shah al Ghuraba, posted two pictures that claimed to show the car Wanndy that was traveling in. The first photo, dated April 28, showed bullet holes in the side of the car. The second photo showed the same car after it had been destroyed in a drone strike the following day, according to information posted with the picture.
BenarNews could not confirm the veracity of the photos.
Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based expert on Southeast Asian extremist groups and a BenarNews columnist, said Wanndy was the main person directing terror attacks in Malaysia and he had established contacts with Malaysian terrorists operating in the Philippines and other countries.
"The death of Wanndy demonstrates that terrorists can run, but they cannot hide," Gunaratna told BenarNews.
"Although he is likely to be replaced, Wanndy's death diminishes the threat to Malaysia as he was a highly motivated operative with a vast network."
Movida attacked
Malaysian police had blamed Wanndy for coordinating a plot from the Middle East that resulted in eight people being injured in a grenade attack claimed by IS at a Kuala Lumpur area nightclub in June 2016.
Afterward, Wanndy went online to declare responsibility for the attack at the Movida nightclub in Puchong. Two men were sentenced in March to 25 years in prison for tossing a grenade at a crowd of patrons who were watching a football match on the patio.
Wanndy was believed to be the only remaining Malaysian IS fighter who was consistently active on social media, primarily Facebook, but also on WhatsApp and Telegram. His death is expected to disrupt networks he had cultivated through social media.
Azmi Hassan, a geo-political expert at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, said Wanndy served as a link between Malaysian militants and IS and was responsible for planning attacks in his home country.
"n reality, only one was successful, the Movida Club. The Daesh strategy is to recruit local followers and the method has not been successful," Azmi told BenarNews, using another name for IS.
"With the death of Wanndy, the influence of Daesh in Malaysia is undoubtedly paralyzed even as Daesh in Syria and Iraq are losing much of their controlled areas."
As unconfirmed reports of Wanndy's death began to surface last week, Sidney Jones, the director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, a Jakarta think-tank, said her group was receiving information that he had been growing more and more concerned about sending his wife and children home to Malaysia.
Jones said Wanndy's death would be a blow to the pro-IS movement in Malaysia, but she also offered a warning.
"It might also spark efforts at retaliatory action," she told BenarNews, adding that the capacity for such attacks was not great.
Early days in IS
Wanndy, who traveled to Syria with his wife in January 2015, was identified as one of two Malaysians who took part in the videotaped decapitation of a Syrian prisoner the next month. The other man, Mohd Faris Anuar, was killed in Iraq in December 2015.
Wanndy apparently posted a 30-second video of the killing on his Facebook page on Feb. 22, 2015.  "This is punishment for a spy who betrays Islam ... a lesson to us all," read an excerpt from the message posted with the video.
During a Facebook interview with BenarNews in September 2015, he expressed no regrets about leaving home to join Islamic State.
He criticized other Malaysians who were afraid to die for IS.
"These Malaysians come up with thousands of excuses to avoid dying as a martyr. When they return to Malaysia, they are screaming their lungs out for jihad, but, ironically, they fled from the battle," Wanndy told BenarNews at the time.
"I must say that I do harbor the hope of returning to Malaysia, but it is not my priority as my focus now is to stay here and fight, to achieve my dream of defending the IS."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's government confirmed Tuesday that a citizen who was a top Islamic State recruiter died in a drone attack in Syria, but analysts warned that others could replace him including by helping IS build its ranks in the southern Philippines.
Malaysia was able to confirm the killing of IS fighter Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi after being notified by foreign intelligence sources, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters on Tuesday.
"The Malaysian government was informed by international intelligence of the death of Muhammad Wanndy in a drone attack," the state-run Bernama news agency quoted Zahid as saying in Sydney, Australia.
He gave no details about which country had provided this information or who carried out the drone strike that killed Wanndy in Raqqa, Syria, on April 29.
Malaysia, Zahid said, "has no intention to make arrangements to bring back the body. The family of Muhammad Wanndy can arrange to do that with the authorities in Syria."
After reports about Wanndy's death first surfaced last week, Mohamad Fuzi Harun, the chief of the Malaysian police's special branch, said it was working with international counterparts to find out what had happened to the IS militant and whether he was killed in Ma'dan, Syria, which is not far from Raqqa.
"There was an attack on him using drones in Syria, and we are trying to confirm his condition," Fuzi said, according to a May 2 report in Malay Mail Online.
On Monday, Malaysian Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar confirmed that the country's most visible IS operative had been killed in the Raqqa area on April 29, but he did not say how Wanndy had died.
At least 31 IS fighters from Malaysia, including Wanndy, have been killed in Syria or Iraq since 2014, according to figures obtained by BenarNews from the Malaysian government.
'One of the most dedicated terrorists'
Wanndy was reputed to be among IS's leading recruiters of fighters from Southeast Asia.
Of the more than 250 people arrested in Malaysia for suspected IS ties between 2013 and 2016, at least a third were recruited by or linked with Wanndy, according to police statistics cited by Reuters.
"I don't think we can say for sure how many people were recruited by Wanndy, but for sure, his place can be taken by others, just as others can help with recruiting people for Syria or Mindanao," Sidney Jones, the director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, a Jakarta think-tank, told BenarNews.
She was referring to the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, where various Muslim militant groups, including Abu Sayyaf, have declared allegiance to Islamic State. The region is also where IS activity has reportedly been growing as the group's traditional strongholds in Iraq and Syria, such as Raqqa, have come under siege from anti-IS forces.
"Wanddy seemed to find new recruits via Facebook that he did not necessarily know personally, and anyone can do that with a good Internet connection," Jones added.
Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based expert on Southeast Asian extremist groups and a BenarNews columnist, described Wanndy as "one of the most dedicated terrorists."
"Wanndy served with the external operations wing of IS. He mastered the art of recruiting Malaysians to mount attacks against Malaysia," Gunaratna told BenarNews.
"Although he is likely to be replaced, Wanndy's death diminishes the threat to Malaysia as he was a highly motivated operative with a vast network," he added.
'I will not turn away from my duty'
In Malaysia, police had accused Wanndy of orchestrating the first attack claimed by IS on home soil – a grenade attack that injured eight people at a Kuala Lumpur area nightclub in June 2016.
Two months ago, the U.S. Treasury Department declared Wanndy a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, alleging that he coordinated planning for terrorist plots and facilitated travel to the Middle East from Southeast Asia for young IS recruits. When BenarNews reported about the U.S. designation, Wanndy posted a link to the article on his Facebook page.
Officials from the press office at the U.S. Treasury in Washington did not respond to emailed requests from BenarNews seeking comment on Wanndy's death.
Wanndy left Malaysia for Syria in January 2015, taking his family (pictured) along with him.
The following month, he made headlines back home when authorities in Malaysia identified him as one of two Malaysians who had taken part in the videotaped decapitation of a Syrian prisoner of war.
Wanndy apparently posted a 30-second video of the killing on his Facebook page on Feb. 22, 2015, and the other Malaysian man who helped make the video, Mohd Faris Anuar, was reported killed in Iraq in December of that year.
"At this moment I am in Raqqa, Syria, and I will not turn away from my duty to fight for the establishment of the Islamic State's Caliph leadership in preparing for the al-Mahdi's rule," Wanndy told BenarNews in an interview conducted through Facebook.
He was using an Arabic word that connotes a "divinely guided one" who will emerge to restore the purity of the Islamic faith and lead Muslims to victory against enemy forces before Judgment Day.
"The Islamic State (IS) is the movement which is making preparations for al-Mahdi rule towards the end of the world," Wanndy added.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's football association chief said Thursday he feared for the safety of the national team, suggesting players could be poisoned if the Malayan Tigers traveled to Pyongyang, where they are now officially scheduled to compete against North Korea next month.
The qualifying match on June 8 for the 2019 Asia Cup had originally been scheduled to be played in the North Korean capital on March 28. But, citing concerns about security, Malaysia's football team announced in early March it was pulling out of the match amid a bilateral diplomatic row that followed the poisoning-assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's half-brother on Malaysian soil, according to local authorities.
Tunku Ismail Ibni Sultan Ibrahim, the Crown Prince of Johor and president of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), said Thursday in a statement posted on its website that he was "very concerned about the safety assurance regarding the accommodation provided and the food."
"According to the information I have received we need to bring our own food due to the possibility of sabotage," he added among a list of concerns about playing the match in Pyongyong.
Back on March 15 – at the height of the diplomatic row stemming from the assassination of Kim Jong Nam – the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said the match would be played on June 8, but it was seeking a neutral venue away from Pyongyang, the original site.
The row saw Malaysia and North Korea expel their respective ambassadors and impose mutual exit bans on each other's citizens, among other tense moments in a crisis that last six weeks.
It ended in late March when Malaysia agreed to exchange Kim's body, along with two North Koreans suspected of playing a role in his murder in a chemical weapon attack at a Kuala Lumpur area airport, for nine Malaysians who were trapped in Pyongyang for weeks because of the exit ban. The two countries have since lifted reciprocal exit bans.
On Monday, the confederation, the governing body of 46-member football associations across Asia, announced that the match would be played in the North Korean capital on June 8 after all. The federation said it took the decision after receiving confirmation from FAM that "no government travel restrictions are in place."
'People's safety first'
FAM officials voiced displeasure with the federation's decision. Tunku Ismail said he would have preferred that the match "be played at a neutral venue for the sake of the players' safety."
He said he had spoken with coaches who have visited North Korea who told him of ongoing issues that could jeopardize the safety of national team members.
Tunku Ismail said he would find it difficult to allow players, coaches and officials to travel to North Korea, but was concerned that the team would forfeit the match and be eliminated from the Asia Cup tournament as well as "all future AFC matches."
The Malaysian team would be forced to swallow an automatic 3-0 defeat to North Korea, as well as be hit with a fine of U.S. $50,000, if it decided to boycott the match, he said.
"Taking all this into consideration, and after weighing the pros and cons, as president of FAM, I am definitely not in favor of the team traveling to North Korea, but ultimately the final decision rests with our government and the sports ministry," Tunku Ismail said.
"For me, the safety of the Malaysian people is of the utmost importance. We must always put the people's safety first no matter the situation. This is what the Malaysian government and our football fans want above all else," he added.
Malaysia's youth and sports minister was non-committal in response to the concerns expressed by the FAM president.
"So far, the foreign ministry has not issued any travel advisory. With the latest statement by FAM's president on the issue today, I had asked the foreign ministry to review the situation in North Korea and to inform me," Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said.


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BENARNEWS- Three Turkish citizens who were in Malaysian custody for allegedly threatening national security have been deported to their home country because of suspected involvement with a cleric branded by Ankara as a terrorist leader, Malaysia's police chief said Friday.
International rights groups and organizations Friday slammed the Malaysian decision to forcibly send the three back to Turkey, saying their lives would be in danger. The men's relatives in Malaysia accused the authorities of failing to notify them about their loved ones' expulsion in the middle of the night.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar said Friday the three were expelled a day earlier because they allegedly belonged to a group labelled by Turkey as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).
"Police found that they are involved in FETO and are wanted by the Turkish government. Their travel documents have been revoked by the Turkish government. Therefore, their presence in Malaysia is illegitimate and they are considered illegal migrants," Khalid told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
FETO is also known by other names – the Gulen Movement and Hizmet (the Service). The social movement is led Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Muslim cleric whom Turkish officials have accused of plotting to overthrow the government in a failed coup last year.
Since the arrests last week, Malaysian officials had deflected accusations that the suspects – Turgay Karaman, 43, Ihsan Aslan, 39, and Ismet Ozcelik, 58 – had been taken into custody at the bequest of Turkey's government, a fellow Muslim-majority nation and ally that cooperates with Malaysia in countering terrorism.
"I don't want to question their motives or their integrity but, looking from the outside, the arrests of these individuals appear to be under Turkish influence," said Y. Alp Aslandogan, the New York-based president of the Alliance for Shared Values and a board member of the Gulen Institute – both associated with Fethullah Gulen.
"It is not reflecting well of Malaysia's record on human rights and, therefore, I urge authorities ... to be completely free of any Turkish influence," he told BenarNews in a phone interview earlier this week.
'They will torture him'
Aslan's wife, Malaysian citizen Ainnurul Aisyah Yunos Ali Maricar, said she was shocked when she learned that her husband and the others were forced to leave Malaysia.
"I found out this morning from a journalist that my husband has been deported. I was not informed at all by the authorities," she told BenarNews.
One of the other expelled men, Karaman, had been living in Malaysia for almost 15 years and served as principal of an international school in the state of Perak.
Aslan is a businessman, and Ozcelik was a board member of a university in Turkey shut down by authorities after the 2016 attempted coup. He had previously been arrested and jailed for 90 days by Malaysian immigration officials in December on charges of obstructing a public officer, after he was asked to show officials his passport.
The three Turks were all arrested during the first week of May under Malaysia's Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA), for allegedly carrying out activities that threatened the nation's safety.
Last week, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Karaman and Aslan were taken into custody for suspected links to the Islamic State terrorist group. He offered no evidence to back up the claim.
This week's deportations followed similar actions against Turkish nationals Alettin Duman and Tamer Tibik, who were arrested by Malaysian authorities and sent back to Turkey in October 2016.
Following the arrests of Karaman, Aslan and Ozcelik, their families pleaded with the Malaysian government to not send their loved ones to Turkey.
"If they don't want (my husband) to be here, they can send (him) to other countries, but not Turkey because they will torture him," said Karaman's wife, Ayse Gul Karaman.
Widespread condemnation
The organizations that criticized the expulsions of the three men included domestic and international rights advocacy groups and the United Nations.
In a series of tweets, Eric Paulsen, executive director of Malaysian NGO Lawyers for Liberty, asked what the trio had done to deserve to be deported to Turkey where, he said, they risked being jailed and tortured.
"This is in breach of international law prohibiting refoulement ...." Paulsen said on Twitter, using a legal term that refers to the forced return of a person who faces the prospect of persecution back home.
Josef Benedict, director for Amnesty International in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said the Malaysian authorities had jeopardized the men's liberty and well-being.
"They have already suffered a harrowing ordeal, being arbitrarily detained and held incommunicado. Now, they have been extradited to Turkey, where they could face arbitrary detention, unfair trial and a real risk of torture," he said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson criticized the secretive nature of the men's deportation, pointing out that their families were not notified.
He said the refoulement of Ismet, who was recognized as a refugee by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), was a clear violation of international human rights law.
"What makes this even more of a black mark on Malaysia's already spotty right record is the fact that senior government officials, including the Deputy Prime Minister and the IGP, repeatedly denied Turkey's involvement, and used apparently false claims of IS links or 'local terrorism' to justify their detention under the rights abusing SOSMA law," Robertson said.
UNHCR's Southeast Asia office expressed similar concerns over the safety of the deportees.
"Five people have now been forcibly returned to Turkey from Malaysia since last October. We have concerns that other Turkish nationals with alleged links to the Gulen movement may be similarly arrested and deported from Malaysia," it said in a Facebook posting.
Hadi Azmi in Kuala Lumpur and Roni Toldanes in Washington contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Catholic leaders in Muslim-dominated Malaysia are rejoicing at the opening of their country's first embassy at the Vatican – a move touted by their government as boosting closer bilateral ties with the Holy See and promoting religious moderation and tolerance.
Foreign Minister Anifah Aman this week presided over the inauguration of the Chancery of the Malaysian Embassy to the Holy See, much to the delight of clergy in the eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak – where the bulk of Malaysia's Catholic and Christian communities is concentrated.
Richard Ng, the bishop of Miri district in Sarawak, said the diplomatic milestone represented a door to better mutual understanding and a way to bridge a gap between Malaysia and the Roman Catholic Church.
"We feel good to be close to Pope Francis, the Holy Father, even though we in Malaysia are just a small community," he told BenarNews.
Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister James Masing described it as a good opportunity for Bernard Giluk Dompok, the ambassador to the Vatican, to highlight multi-ethnic and multi-religious Malaysia as an inclusive country.
"We are moderates and not extremists and Ambassador Bernard Dompok will set that straight," he told BenarNews.
Dompok previously served as Sabah chief minister and a federal minister.
Of the country's 31.7 million people, slightly more than 9 percent are Christians – and about half of them are Catholics. They mostly are from ethnic Chinese, Indian or indigenous backgrounds, according to 2016 statistics.
Malaysia and the Holy See established diplomatic ties in 2011 and, in November 2015, Malaysia opened an embassy with a residence in Rome.
Last year, Malaysian Catholics had another reason to celebrate as Pope Francis elevated Msgr. Anthony Soter Fernandez, the emeritus archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, as the nation's first-ever cardinal – the second highest rank in the church, next to the pontiff.
In opening the diplomatic mission on Tuesday, Anifah said it symbolized Malaysia's commitment to enhance mutual ties, particularly on religious matters, and promote better understanding about religion.
"Malaysia strongly believes in the need to practice moderation as the fundamental element to foster greater integration, ensuring peaceful coexistence through the rejection of extremism that undermines the universal values of religion," the foreign minister said at the Vatican, according to Malaysia's state-run Bernama news service.
"It is good news for once between the government and Christians," said Jonathan Ng whose children attend a Catholic school in the state of Selangor.
But some other Catholics were skeptical.
Mutual cooperation would be positive, but the reality of life for members of religious minorities in Malaysia may not change, Nelson Zuzartee told BenarNews.
"It is still difficult to get permits to open a church here. It is hard to get visa approvals to travel to the Holy See," he said. "It is cosmetics, for international diplomacy."
Laja Laing in Kuching, Sarawak, contributed to this report.


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BENARNESS- A football match between Malaysia and North Korea that was to be played in Pyongyang on June 8 has been postponed till October and at an undetermined site following security concerns raised by Malaysian officials.
The Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) announcement Wednesday to delay the 2019 Asia Cup qualifier marked the second time it postponed the match between the two countries. The decision came six days after the head of Malaysia's football association expressed fears that players from the national team could be exposed to food poisoning "due to the possibility of sabotage," if the AFC compelled them to play the match in the North Korean capital.
The match, originally scheduled for March 28, was first postponed till June 8 amid a diplomatic row that broke out after the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was poisoned to death in a chemical weapon attack at a Kuala Lumpur area airport on Feb. 13, according to Malaysian authorities.
In its latest statement, the AFC did not specify the Malaysian concerns about food poisoning but said it was postponing the match again "because of the geo-political tension on the Korean Peninsula."
Tension has been high on the peninsula as North Korea keeps firing missile tests angering its neighbour South Korea and the United States.
"Although the AFC had proposed on May 8 that the match – which was already postponed from March 28, 2017 –  take place in the DPR Korea capital, recent developments have forced the AFC to reconsider the decision on the grounds of safety and security," the confederation said.
The secretary-general of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) welcomed the announcement in a WhatsApp post sent to reporters.
"This is the best decision based on the current situation in Pyongyang and coincidentally this is good for the national team to have more time to make necessary preparations and to study the weaknesses of the opponent," Hamidin Mohd Amin said.
AFC said it would monitor ongoing safety and security issues, as well as a match where North Korea will host Mongolia on May 31 and age-restricted under-23 qualifying matches scheduled for July 19 to 23.
"After those matches, the AFC will make a decision of the venue for the AFC Asian Cup qualifier on Oct. 5," the statement said.
Up in the air
The six-week diplomatic row that followed the assassination of Kim Jong Nam saw Malaysia and North Korea expel their respective ambassadors and impose mutual exit bans on each other's citizens. During the dispute Malaysia's prime minister joined South Korea and the U.S. in casting blame on North Korean government agents for being behind Kim's murder, caused by an internationally banned nerve agent.
The row ended in late March when Malaysia agreed to exchange Kim's body, along with two North Koreans suspected of playing a role in his killing, for nine Malaysians who were trapped in Pyongyang for weeks because of the exit ban.
The two countries have since lifted reciprocal exit bans.
On May 8, AFC, the governing body of 46-member football associations across Asia, announced that the match would be played in the North Korean capital on June 8.
On May 11, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, who is the president of FAM and Crown Prince of Johor state, asked that the match be played at a neutral venue.
"According to the information I have received, we need to bring our own food due to the possibility of sabotage," he said.
Tunku Ismail added he was concerned that Malaysia would have to forfeit the match, face a fine of U.S. $50,000 (216,000 ringgit) and be eliminated from the qualifying stages of the 2019 Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates, if the team refused to play in Pyongyang. The Malayan Tigers also risked being disqualified from future AFC matches, he said.
Fadzil Aziz in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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