Malaysian School Counselor Innocent of Alleged Ties to IS: Lawyer

Muzliza Mustafa and S. Adie Zul
2016.11.01
Kuala Lumpur and Penang, Malaysia
161101-MY-counselor-1000 Officers from an anti-terrorist unit arrest a school counselor at his home in Kedah state, Malaysia, Sept. 28, 2016. Image altered by police.
Courtesy of Royal Malaysia Police

A lawyer defending a Malaysian school counselor who has been charged over alleged links to the extremist group Islamic State (IS) says his client is innocent.

The 30-year-old counselor who works at a middle school in Kedah state was arrested during raids by Malaysian police in six states that netted 16 suspects with alleged ties to terrorism in late September and early October.

Fourteen of the 16 belonged to a new group known as Black Crows (Gagak Hitam), which is led by Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, an IS fighter based in Syria, police said.

The school counselor headed the Gagak Hitam network inside Malaysia and sent money to Wanndy in Syria on at least three occasions, according to a source close to the investigation.

Wanndy is suspected of having orchestrated an IS-claimed grenade attack that injured eight patrons at a Kuala Lumpur area nightclub in June.

The counselor was arrested Sept. 28 under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act of 2012, and remains in custody. On Oct. 25, he was charged at the Magistrate’s court in Kulim, Kedah for soliciting support for a terrorist organization and possessing an item related to a terrorist group, attorney Fadhly Yaacob said. The charge sheet did not specify what the item in question was.

“I will defend my client and do my part as his lawyer. To me, he is not guilty as per charged,” Fadhly told BenarNews, adding his client pleaded not guilty.

The arrest shocked the family of the man who was popular among pupils and colleagues at the school in Kulim, the lawyer said.

“His arrest has affected his family emotionally. They do not believe that he is involved in [this] activity,” Fadhly said, describing his client as a pious Muslim and man of good character. He declined to grant a BenarNews request to interview the counselor’s relatives, citing attorney-client privilege.

Suspect funded IS activities: source

According to the source close to the investigation, the counsellor’s first interaction with Wanndy dated to January 2015, when Wanndy shared news about happenings in Syria.

“He only started to pay ‘infaq’ in March – three times to Wanndy and several others through a middle man here,” the source told BenarNews on condition of anonymity, referring to an Arabic word for a voluntary payment meant to please God.

It is believed that the money was sent to finance IS activities, the source said.

“So far, investigations have shown that his role was only to fund IS. There is no indication that he had recruited anyone or a school student to join IS,” added the source, who declined to reveal how much money was sent abroad.

The counselor had closely followed Facebook accounts belonging to several Malaysian fighters in Syria, and he had pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the source said.

‘Everyone is exposed’

Meanwhile, according to the chairman of a state education committee in Kedah, the counselor had a clean service record.

“We feel very sad with the arrest, which is also the first in Kedah, as the state Education Department had issued a clear instruction before this for teachers to stay away from any activity which relates to IS,” Tajul Urus Mat Zain told BenarNews.

“However, we also have to admit that it is almost impossible for the schools’ authority to monitor what the teachers are doing outside their working hours. We suspect that the teacher had sympathized with extremist ideology through his contact with militant members via the Internet,” he added.

For many months, Malaysian authorities have warned of a threat of IS recruiting young citizens via social media and campuses, and have said that IS veterans returning from combat stints in the Middle East could plot terror attacks on home soil.

According to the U.S. State Department, about 1,000 people from Malaysia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia had joined IS in Syria and Iraq by the end of last year. Since 2013, Malaysian authorities have arrested at least 250 suspected IS members and have charged at least 75 suspects linked to the group in court.

“Everyone is exposed because IS has very strong propaganda and is penetrating the media to their advantage,” Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, the chief of the Malaysian police’s counter-terrorist special branch, told BenarNews.

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