A man arrested for Islamic State (IS) links was an aviation technician
responsible for local flights carrying business and political leaders,
according to the South China Morning Post.
The 49-year-old, a former Royal Malaysian Air Force technician, has been
employed for 13 years by a firm servicing planes used by the VIPs, and
was responsible for determining airworthiness.One unnamed security official said the man could have sabotaged an aircraft and smuggled weapons onto a plane.
“The suspect is a senior technician whose responsibility was to check
that an aircraft is safe for use. He is the person who gives the green
light whether an aircraft is safe to take off or not,” a security
official was quoted as saying by the SCMP in its report Friday. The
report said the aircraft maintenance company services chartered flights
for “VVIPs” to travel domestic routes.
According to the report, the man was arrested in late March together
with 14 others in several location in Malaysia over suspected link with
the IS terrorist group. It added that while 14 others have been charged
in court, investigation into the engineer was still underway.
“He has conducted religious classes where he propagated IS ideology,”
the official was quoted as saying. He is known to actively support IS
via his Facebook account. He has shown IS videos on his mobile phone to
his friends with the aim of promoting ISIS,” the official added.
Associate Professor Kumar Ramakrishna, head of policy studies at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies Singapore, who also spoke to
SCMP, said the discovery raised concerns of “insider threat of
transnational terrorism”.
“Such a person would have the ability, at least in theory, to sabotage
an aircraft with VVIPs on board either through by deliberately tampering
with onboard systems, causing them to fail in mid-flight, or by placing
an improvised explosive device onboard, assuming that he can gain
access to one, or has the ability make one himself,” Kumar was quoted as
saying.
The news report said the engineer was the second suspect in the aviation
industry to have been arrested over alleged support for IS. It said
that, an armed auxiliary policeman was arrested last year at the Kuala
Lumpur International Airport after he had allegedly helped the departure
of his brother-in-law to Syria to fight for IS.
The police have, so far, arrested more than 160 IS suspects and based on
the news report, at least 19 Malaysians are known to have died in Iraq
and Syria fighting for the IS cause.
Source: South China Morning Post