Kuala Lumpur, Oct 16: Malaysia has placed the wife of captured Southeast Asian terror suspect Hambali into detention without trial for at least two years for alleged ties to the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network, a senior government official said today. Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi signed the order for Noralwizah Lee Abdullah to be detained under the internal security act after police - who have interrogated her for almost two months - deemed her a "national security threat," the official said on customary condition of anonymity.

Noralwizah, 33, a Malaysian, was arrested August 11 with Hambali in Thailand and handed over to Malaysian authorities. Hambali, an Indonesian whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, is Jemaah Islamiyah's alleged operations chief. Hambali is suspected of orchestrating the October 12, 2002, nightclub blasts in Bali, Indonesia, that killed 202 people, the J W Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta on August 5 in which 12 died, and a spate of deadly explosions in the Philippines and terror plots elsewhere.

Hambali is also accused of planning meetings in Malaysia in 2000 for some of al-Qaeda operatives who crashed a hijacked jetliner into the pentagon on September 11, 2001. He is being interrogated in US custody the location has not been officially disclosed, but he is believed to be held at the Indian Ocean island base of Diego Garcia.

The Malaysian official said Noralwizah is a member of Jemaah Islamiyah who underwent an "initiation ceremony" in the organisation several years ago. In the ceremony, recruits pledge to be "willing to die in helping to defeat the enemies of Islam," the official said.

Bureau Report