Businessman Yazid Sufaat, recently detained under the Internal Security Act for two years, was not associated with the Sept 11 terror attacks according to the home ministry's ISA charge-sheet against him, said his lawyer today.

Saiful Idzham said the four-page charge-sheet only outlined Yazid's involvement in activities which were "prejudicial to national security."

"He (Yazid) was said to be part of an underground movement called Jemaah Islamiah which has been 'fighting to set up an Islamic nation comprising Malaysia, Indonesia and Mindanao'," said the lawyer.

However, Saiful who visited Yazid at the Kamunting Detention Camp in Perak last Friday said his client denied the allegations in the charge-sheet.

"He is now drafting an affidavit to reply to those allegations," said Saiful.

Saiful told malaysiakini that Yazid said he knew many of the other 22 ISA detainees rounded up by police since Dec 9 last year, "through a registered Islamic society and also through religious classes" in which they participated.

"But he said there was no such thing as Jemaah Islamiah or KMM," said Saiful.

The government claimed the 23 detained were part of a second wing of the militant Malaysian Mujahidin Group (KMM) which aimed to topple the government in order to establish an Islamic state.

On Jan 30, Yazid was ordered sent to Kamunting by Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for two years under the ISA, which permits indefinite detention without trial.

Malaysian link

In recent weeks, Yazid was singled out by the American press which quoted reports by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and "Malaysian interrogators" as saying he was an operative for the al-Qaeda terrorist network believed to have masterminded the Sept 11 attacks.

Yazid was said to have used his Kuala Lumpur condominium in late 2000 to host two terrorist suspects who later hijacked the two jetliners and crashed them into New York's World Trade Centre on Sept 11.

Foreign news reports also claimed Yazid had appointed French Morrocan Zacarias Moussaoui as a software company's marketing representative in the US. Moussaoui was charged in the US last December for conspiring with the al-Qaeda.

These media reports irked Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who stressed the Sept 11 attacks were too sophisticated for the ISA detainees and that Malaysia was "not a launchpad" for the attacks.

It was reported early this month that the US is negotiating with Malaysian authorities for the extradition of Yazid.

The government, however, said it has not received such a request and Yazid will not be extradited.