The detention of three people under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012, or Sosma, yesterday afternoon is believed to be related to a Malaysian terrorist shot dead in the Philippines last year.

NONE Chomel Mohamad ( right ), the wife of detainee Yazid Sufaat, said she overheard one police officer, identified only as Insp Mani, question her husband about alleged terrorist Mohd Noor Fikrie Abd Kahar as police searched their house.

"He replied, 'I don't know this guy! Seriously, I don't know'. And true enough, Fikri was mentioned in Utusan Malaysia this morning," Chomel said.

She was speaking to reporters at the Ampang magistrate's court today while waiting for her husband to be charged .

Yazid, along with his employee of six months, Hilmi Hafim, and a family acquantance, Halimah Hussein, yesterday became the first detainees to be held under the Sosma , which replaced the Internal Security Act in July last year.

They are being held on suspicion of terrorism-related offences, inspector-general of police Ismail Omar said yesterday.

Meanwhile Utusan Malaysia , quoting unnamed sources, reported that the detainees are believed to have links to Fikrie’s former associates.

Chomel, who operates a drinks stall at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex’s cafeteria with Yazid, described the detentions as “crazy”.

“But we have never met Fikrie, never contacted him. I think every journalist who has come to the cafe saw that my husband was there all the time with me,” she said.

She added that she was with Yazid almost all the time, and the latter is never away from home.

“I don’t understand,” the mother of four said of the allegations.

Recounting the arrests, Chomel said she was arranging kuih at her stall at about 12.30pm yesterday when she spotted the police officer who arrested Yazid under the Internal Security Act in December 2001.

‘A familiar face’

“I was so surprised to see him, a familiar face. I asked, ‘Hey, what are you doing here?’ After that, all of a sudden I saw Hilmi being handcuffed.

“My husband was washing his hands at the sink, then a group of policemen surrounded him and handcuffed him,” she said.

Her counsel Fadiah Nadwa Fikri added that the operation involved some 15 plainclothes police officers travelling in two vans and two cars.

“I was there. I had just finished my court case and suddenly I saw police officers coming and cuffing and Hilmi was asking, ‘Why, why, why am I being arrested?’ and nobody responded to him.

“That’s why I intervened and told them that he must be told his grounds of arrest,” she said.

She said she later accompanied Chomel and Yazid to their home in Taman Bukit Ampang, where the police conducted a five-hour search from 1.30pm.

Chomel said that among the items confiscated as evidence are Yazid’s laptop, wallet, modem, and books about Islam.

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