Malaysia Arrests Indonesian Terror Suspect

Malaysia has re-arrested an Indonesian who slipped back into the country after being deported for harbouring one of Southeast Asia's most wanted terror suspects, police said Friday.

Agus Salim, from Indonesia's Sumatra island, was detained on Monday at the restaurant where he works in the southern city of Johor Baru for entering the country under a false name, a senior police official said.

Salim was arrested in 2009 under Malaysia's Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for indefinite detention without trial.

He was suspected of helping hide Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the alleged head of the Singapore cell of regional terror outfit Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which has links with Al-Qaeda.

Mas Selamat escaped from a Singaporean high-security prison in 2008 and got into Malaysia, where he was recaptured in 2009.

Salim was deported back to Indonesia in 2009, months after his arrest, but police found out that he re-entered Malaysia under a new name, an immigration offence, several months ago, the police official said.

"We have arrested him in 2009 because of his involvement in harbouring Mas Selamat in Johor Baru," the official told AFP. "We are sure he is (still) trying very hard to assist the JI group."

The official said Salim was working at the same restaurant where he had been employed before his 2009 arrest.

The New Straits Times reported, quoting unnamed sources, that the 34-year-old was believed to be a JI "sleeper agent" who followed instructions to supply logistics and other help to JI members in Malaysia.

Separately, another Indonesian, Abdul Haris Syuhadi, was held under the ISA last weekend at his home in central Selangor state for allegedly recruiting members for JI.

The 63-year-old textile seller is alleged to have been spreading JI ideology and actively recruiting members for the terror group since 2002, according to police.

JI is blamed for a string of attacks in the region, including the 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people were killed, many of them foreign tourists.

Malaysia regularly uses the ISA to detain mostly terror suspects but also alleged people smugglers and opposition activists despite criticism from human rights groups, which have urged the country to charge criminals in court.

- By Agence France-Presse