Malaysia deported a suspected leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group to Indonesia on Friday, and he was immediately arrested there for questioning about his possible links to the organization. The surprise announcement that Mohammad Iqbal Abdul Rahman had been sent back to his native country appears to resolve a dispute between Malaysia, which wanted to expel him because of alleged terrorist activity, and Indonesia, where authorities had previously said they had no reason to detain him.
| "What the hell would we do with him?" |
Indonesia's national police chief Gen. Dai Bachtiar said Iqbal had been arrested in Jakarta when he arrived on a flight from Malaysia. He was being held at the Jakarta police headquarters on charges of forging identity cards, but police will question him over alleged terrorism links, Bachtiar said. The deportation was announced in a High Court hearing, where lawyers and family members had expected him to appear to fight a government order withdrawing his Malaysian permanent residency status and declaring him an unwanted immigrant. "I have instructions to inform this court that Mohamed Iqbal Abdul Rahman was deported from Malaysia this morning," government lawyer Fadzillah Begum told the court. "He was deported to Jakarta."
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