College student pleads guilty to being Al-Qaeda member

KUALA LUMPUR: The first person charged with involvement with al-Qaeda activities in Malaysia pleaded guilty at the High Court here today on a charge of giving support to the terrorist group (Jund Al Aqsa) by becoming a member.
Mohamad Hidayat Azman, 20, a college student in Cairo, Egypt, changed his plea to guilty when the case was set for trial today in front of Judicial Commissioner Datuk Mohamad Shariff Abu Samah.
The court fixed Oct 31 for a re-mention of the case after counsel Faizal Rahman who represented Mohamad Hidayat appealed to the court to set a new date to allow the social report on his client to be submitted as the incident occurred when he was 18 years old.
Mohamad Hidayat was charged with being a member of the group by boarding a flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Sepang to Syria between Sept 5, 2014 and Sept 1, 2015.
He was charged under Section 130J (1)(a) of the Penal Code, punishable under Section 130J of the same law which provides for a life sentence or up to 30 years, or fine, and forfeiture of any items which were used or intended to be used to commit the offence, if found guilty.
Based on the facts of the case, in early Sept 2014, the accused continued his studies at Markas Lisan Salam in Cairo after following developments in Syria on Facebook.
The accused contacted a Syrian national he met on Facebook to find out about ways to enter Syria and sought the help of an Indonesian living in Egypt to buy a plane ticket to Hatay, Turkey, to enter Syria.
When he was at the Ajnad As Syam Camp in Hama, Syria, the accused went through physical and military training such as dismantling and re-assembling the AK47 rifle, as well as horseback riding.
After spending two weeks in Hama, the accused moved to Idlip, Syria, to join the Jund Al Aqsa group which was under the al-Qaeda umbrella and again underwent physical and military training including patrolling the boundary in seized areas as well as learning to use anti-tank firearms.
Prosecution was conducted by Deputy Public Prosecutor Munirah Shamsudin @ Baharum. — Bernama