Malaysian authorities postponed Sunday’s planned deportation of an alleged senior leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group shortly before his scheduled flight to his home country, Indonesia, the suspect’s wife said. Mohammad Iqbal Rahman, who was in Malaysian custody for 30 months on suspicion of militant links, never showed up for the flight even though immigration officials told his family to prepare to join him at the airport. Iqbal’s wife, Fatimah Zahrah Abdul Aziz, said she learned that his deportation was delayed after she checked in to board the Sunday morning flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta, where he was expected to walk free.
| Could that be why he wasn't allowed to leave? |
She said airline officials at the check-in counter told her that her husband had not checked in. When she called the immigration detention center where he was held, she was told he was still there. Immigration officials said Iqbal’s deportation had been postponed, she said. No reasons or new date for his departure were given.
| "We just enjoy his company so much, we can't bear to let him go!" |
``I feel very sad and disappointed. They told me I should come here to the airport,’’ Fatimah said. ``I had expected to be with my husband today.’’
| Life's tough, ain't it? Guess you'll have to wait. |
Badaruddin Ismail, an official with the human rights group Suaram who accompanied Fatimah to the airport, said immigration officials at the detention center said they were instructed late Saturday to call off the deportation plans. Iqbal, 46, was arrested in 2001 and detained under a law allowing indefinite detention without trial for threatening national security. He allegedly wanted to wage armed holy war to build a hardline Islamic state in Southeast Asia. Officials allege Iqbal was a close associate of Jemaah Islamiyah’s alleged spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, and of Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali. The U.S. State Department in January designated Iqbal a terrorist and called him Jemaah Islamiyah’s ``primary recruiter and second in command.’’ Malaysian officials canceled Iqbal’s permanent residency status in August and announced they would deport him as an ``undesirable immigrant.’’
| "We've got enough tough guys and lunatics of our own!" |
Indonesian officials have repeatedly said Iqbal is not wanted for any crime there, and they have no reason to arrest him.
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