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Expert: Send terrorists to uninhabited island

By Nawar Firdaws

PETALING JAYA: A terrorism expert has proposed the isolation of known terrorists and their sympathisers on an uninhabited island until they are rehabilitated.
This would prevent prevent them from influencing other inmates in regular prisons with their ideologies, said R Paneir Selvam in an interview with FMT.
“Allowing them interaction with other inmates is very dangerous,” he said. “They may inspire others to commit terror acts as well.”
Paneir, who is the Chairman of the Association of Legal and Policy Researchers, noted that Malaysia had a system of isolation of criminals in the 1960s and 1970s, when Pulau Jerejak served as a penal colony. Hardcore criminals were sent there for rehabilitation before they were transferred.
“Bukit Aman’s counter-terrorism branch has been arresting more and more Malaysian IS members and sympathisers, and the number is growing,” he said.
“Rather than placing them in a normal prison where they are allowed to mix around with young, impressionable inmates, they should be isolated and rehabilitated.”
He said the detention of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi at Iraq’s Camp Bukka showed that conventional imprisonment might not work with terrorists.
“From there, he influenced those within the camp to collaborate with him and form a group dedicated to terrorism,” he said.
“In Malaysia, we have Yazid Sufaat, a former member of Jemaah Islamiyah who was imprisoned in 2001. Then the government said he was reformed and released him.”
Yazid was again arrested in 2014 and sentenced to seven years’ in jail after pleading guilty to an alternative charge of omitting to give information relating to terrorist acts. He was originally charged with promoting the commission of terrorist acts and being a member of the terrorist group Tanzim al-Qaeda Malaysia.
Paneir’s call followed a statement by Justin Siberell, the Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the US State Department, in which he said the IS was considering expansion into Southeast Asia by joining forces with local extremists.
“We’re certainly concerned about IS’ ability to expand or to establish branches,” a news report quoted Siberell as saying.

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