12 December 2015•Update: 12 December 2015
By P Prem Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR
Malaysia will soon establish a special court to prosecute suspects with links to militant or terror groups, amid growing concern about the Daesh threat to the country.
Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday that the special court would be one of the precautionary measures taken by the Malaysian government as more nationals are found fleeing the country and joining Daesh in Iraq and Syria.
"This so-called Islamic State is dangerous,” he cautioned in the closing address at his United Malays National Organization (UMNO) general assembly, using an alternative acronym for Daesh.
“We have arrested 130 of our people. There are bomb specialists thus we have to be careful,” he added.
“We don't want something to happen, so we arrest them first before they can do anything. I have asked the Chief Justice to work on it."
Elaborating on the special court, Razak said it would enable immediate and nighttime proceedings, as long as it could try potential militants or terror activists.
"The court would work as long as these people don't do bad things, that can result in many people dying in Malaysia [like] what happened in Tunisia and Paris recently," he said.
Razak, however, assured that Malaysia is currently safe from terrorist attacks because of the government's efficiency and firmness in handling the issue.
Malaysia has recently been mentioned in international media over its citizens' involvement in various Daesh terror attacks worldwide.
Many nationals have also been caught while trying to flee the country to join Daesh.
Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein recently revealed that the group had threatened to attack the top three leaders of the country, including himself.
He said that Malaysia’s counter-terrorism intelligence unit had warned him several months ago that he was a target of the extremist group, allegedly due to his championing of “moderation” in Islam within the Asia region.
In April, the Home Ministry formulated new anti-terror laws that will reintroduce indefinite detention without trial and allow the seizure of passports of anyone suspected of supporting terror acts in a bid to curb suspected militant activities in the country.
The controversial National Security Council Bill -- which grants PM Razak supreme security powers -- was approved in parliament earlier this month despite strong protests from opposition MPs and civil society groups.
Tunisia is under a month-long state of emergency following a suicide attack in late November targeting presidential guards that left more than a dozen people dead, while multiple gun-and-bomb attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 killed 130 people and left dozens of others injured.
