Yazid Sufaat, also known as Yazud bin Sufaat or Yazid Shufaat, is a Malaysian member of the extremist Islamist terrorist organisation Jemaah Islamiyah from shortly after its foundation in 1993 until his arrest by Malaysian authorities in December 2001. His speciality had been to develop anthrax as a weapon of bio-terrorism on behalf of the terror group al-Qaeda. Released in 2008, he was again detained on terrorist charges in Malaysia in 2013.
The Internal Security Act 1960 was a preventive detention law in force in Malaysia. The legislation was enacted after the Federation of Malaya gained independence from Britain in 1957. The ISA allows for detention without trial or criminal charges under limited, legally defined circumstances. On 15 September 2011, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak said that this legislation will be repealed and replaced by two new laws. The ISA was replaced and repealed by the Security Offences Act 2012 which has been passed by Parliament and given the royal assent on 18 June 2012. The Act came into force on 31 July 2012.
Operation Lalang was a major crackdown undertaken by the Royal Malaysian Police from 27 October to 20 November 1987, ostensibly to prevent the occurrence of racial riots in Malaysia. The operation saw the arrest of 106 to 119 people—political activists, opposition politicians, intellectuals, students, artists, scientists and others—who were detained without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA). It was the second largest mass arrest in Malaysian history involving the ISA since the 13 May riots 18 years earlier. It also involved the revoking of the publishing licenses of two dailies, The Star and the Sin Chew Jit Poh and two weeklies, The Sunday Star and Watan.
Operation Spectrum, also known as the 1987 "Marxist Conspiracy", was the code name for a covert anti-communist security operation that took place in Singapore on 21 May 1987. Sixteen people were arrested and detained without trial under Singapore's Internal Security Act (ISA) for their alleged involvement in "a Marxist conspiracy to subvert the existing social and political system in Singapore, using communist united front tactics, with a view to establishing a Marxist state." On 20 June 1987, six more people were arrested, bringing the total number of detainees to 22. The mostly English-educated group was a mix of Catholic lay workers, social workers, overseas-educated graduates, theatre practitioners and professionals.
Preventive detention is an imprisonment that is putatively justified for non-punitive purposes, most often to prevent further criminal acts.
Torture in Bahrain refers to the violation of Bahrain's obligations as a state party to the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and other international treaties and disregard for the prohibition of torture enshrined in Bahraini law.
Following Bahrain's independence from the British in 1971, the government of Bahrain embarked on an extended period of political suppression under a 1974 State Security Law shortly after the adoption of the country's first formal Constitution in 1973. Overwhelming objections to state authority resulted in the forced dissolution of the National Assembly by Amir Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa and the suspension of the Constitution until 2001. The State Security Law of 1974 was a law used by the government of Bahrain to crush political unrest from 1974 until 2001. It was during this period that the worst human rights violations and torture were said to have taken place. The State Security Law contained measures permitting the government to arrest and imprison individuals without trial for a period of up to three years for crimes relating to state security. A subsequent Decree to the 1974 Act invoked the establishment of State Security Courts, adding to the conditions conducive to the practice of arbitrary arrest and torture. The deteriorating human rights situation in Bahrain is reported to have reached its height in the mid-1990s when thousands of men, women and children were illegally detained, reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees were documented, and trials fell short of international standards.
Raja Petra bin Raja Kamarudin was a Malaysian blogger known for running the Malaysia Today website and publishing a series of controversial commentaries and articles on Malaysian politics in the website. He was sometimes referred to by the initials RPK. He resided in Manchester, England.
Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism or rebellion, to control illegal immigration, or to otherwise protect the ruling regime.
Al-Ma'unah is an Islamic sect and spiritual militant group based in Malaysia. The group was made famous by their audacious raid on 2 July 2000 on a camp of Malaysian Army Reserve mobilized in the early hours of the morning and stealing weapons from the armory. The group was later cornered in the village of Sauk, Kuala Kangsar, Perak and was involved in a stand-off the against the Malaysian Army and Royal Malaysian Police forces. The stand-off, known as the Sauk Siege, ended when Malaysian security forces, including the army 22nd Grup Gerak Khas and police VAT 69 Pasukan Gerakan Khas, stormed the camp in Operation Dawn.
The Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA) of Singapore is a statute that grants the executive power to enforce preventive detention, prevent subversion, suppress organized violence against persons and property, and do other things incidental to the internal security of Singapore. The present Act was originally enacted by the Parliament of Malaysia as the Internal Security Act 1960, and extended to Singapore on 16 September 1963 when Singapore was a state of the Federation of Malaysia.
The Ministry of Interior and General Investigation, commonly known simply as the Mabahith, is the secret police agency of the Presidency of State Security in Saudi Arabia, and deals with domestic security and counter-intelligence.
Hindu Rights Action Force, better known by its acronym HINDRAF ; is a Hindu-activism right-wing non-governmental organisation (NGO) with its renowned slogan of Makkal Sakti or Kuasa Rakyat translated as People's Power. This organisation began as a coalition of 30 Hindu NGOs committed to the preservation of Hindu community rights and heritage in a multiracial Malaysia.
Political arrests was carried out between 1990 and 1991 to crack down on opposition leaders in Sabah, Malaysia, and their alleged plans to secede the state from Malaysia, allegedly known as Operation Talkak. Seven men were detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA). All seven men were leaders or prominent members the Kadazan Cultural Association (KCA), Institute for Development Studies (IDS), Sabah Foundation, and opposition party Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), and were placed under two-year detention orders.
Datuk Seri Haji Mohamad bin Sabu, born in 14 October 1954 commonly known as Mat Sabu, is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security in the Unity Government administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim since November 2022 and Minister of Defence in the PH administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad from May 2018 to the collapse of the PH administration in February 2020. He has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kota Raja since May 2018, Kuala Kedah from November 1999 to March 2004, Kubang Kerian from April 1995 to November 1999 and Nilam Puri from October 1990 to April 1995. He is a member of the National Trust Party (AMANAH), a component party of the PH coalition. He has also served as the 1st and founding President of AMANAH since September 2015.
Abdulwahab Hussain Ali Ahmed Esmael is a Bahraini political activist, writer, religious figure and philosopher. He was one of the most prominent opposition leaders in the 1990s uprising when he was arrested twice for a total length of five years in which he was allegedly subjected to solitary confinement and torture. After his release in 2001, he supported government reform plans.
The Security Offences Act 2012 is a controversial law supposedly "to provide for special measures relating to security offences for the purpose of maintaining public order and security and for connected matters". The Act is to replace the 1960 Internal Security Act (Malaysia). The Act was introduced by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, approved in Parliament on 17 April 2012, given the Royal Assent on 18 June 2012 and Gazetted on 22 June 2012.
Dr. Mohd Nasir bin Hashim is a Malaysian democratic socialist politician and former president of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM). He was also the State Assemblyman for Kota Damansara in Selangor from 2008 to 2013. He is a former Chairman of INSAN and Social Research Institute.
Tuang Pik King is a Malaysian civil and minority rights activist and educator from Perak who was detained in the Kamunting Detention Centre Prison during Operation Lalang in the late 1980s along with Mohamad Sabu, Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Kua Kia Soong, Karpal Singh, Mohd Nasir Hashim, and many more people. Operation Lalang was part of the Malaysian government's crackdown on opposition and dissenting voices at the time.
Syed Husin bin Ali was a Malaysian academic and politician who served as president of the left-wing Parti (Sosialis) Rakyat Malaysia. He was also a prominent political detainee, who was held for six years without trial under Malaysia's Internal Security Act, from 1974 to 1980. Following the merger of Parti Rakyat Malaysia with Parti Keadilan Nasional, he held the position of deputy president of the merged entity Parti Keadilan Rakyat from 2003 to 2010. He also served two terms in Malaysia's Senate from 2009 to 2015.
