Alleged Islamic militant, Yazid Sufaat, ordered detained under the Internal Security Act for two years, will object to his arrest and seek his release at a hearing arranged by the Home Affairs Ministry next month.
The hearing, scheduled for March 14, came as a surprise to both Yazid and his lawyer Saiful Izham Ramli as neither had requested for it.
Yazid, 38, was ordered placed under a two-year detention by the ministry last month following his arrest on Dec 9.
He has denied all the charges stated in the detention order issued by Home Affairs Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said Saiful.
He is not guilty of all the charges and he will reply to those charges in writing soon, said Saiful who will represent Yazid at the hearing.
Under ISA provisions, a three-member advisory board can recommend to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to release a detainee but this is first subject to approval by the home affairs minister.
Yazid was among 23 people rounded up by police in recent weeks.
The group was said to comprise members of a secret cell under the so-called Malaysian Mujahidin Group (KMM) who were allegedly trying overthrow the government through militant means and set up an Islamic state.
Jemaah Islamiah member
Yazid was later singled out as an al-Qaeda terrorist network operative following foreign media reports which quoted a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report and also Malaysian authorities on numerous allegations levelled against him.
Among others, Yazid was said to have signed a letter appointing a terrorist suspect as the marketing representative of his wifes company in the United States and Europe.
The French Moroccan suspect, Zacarias Moussaoui, was charged in the US late last year for conspiring with the al-Qaeda network led by Arab-born Osama bin Laden.
Yazid was also said to have hosted two terrorists who were involved in the Sept 11 attacks in the United States. The duo, together with 17 others, had hijacked four jetliners and crashed them into New York Citys World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington.
A copy of Yazids detention order obtained by malaysiakini said that Yazid was a member of an organisation called Jemaah Islamiah which aims to instill the jihad and martyrdom spirit in Malaysia, Indonesia and Mindanao in the Philippines through religious classes conducted by three clerics from Indonesia.
Their ultimate goal was to set up Islamic states in the region through armed violence and this could harm the national security of Malaysia, said the detention order.
Secret meetings in condo
Yazid was also said to have contributed RM7,000 to Jemaah Islamiah to fund sectarian violence in the Ambon Islands in Indonesia, and against the Philippine army in Mindanao.
The firearms (used by Jemaah Islamiah) were to be brought into Malaysia at an appropriate time, read the detention order.
It said Yazid had allowed his condominium in a Selangor suburb to be used as the venue for secret meetings by Jemaah Islamiah in 1999 to mobilise local members towards a jihad (holy war) against the government.
The condominium was also used to host members of the al-Qaeda terrorist group but the detention order did not mention their identity or nationality.
Apart from this, the government has alleged that Yazid, who owned a pathology laboratory, had purchased four tonnes of ammonium nitrate, an ingredient essential for making explosives.
The chemical was from a company in Batu Caves, Selangor, and was to be shipped to Batam, Indonesia, to help in the jihad against Christians in Ambon, according to the government.
