A Malaysian scientist who once led Al Qaeda’s quest to produce weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Afghanistan will be released from prison next year, according to Malaysian police, who warn that he remains a security risk.
Yazid Sufaat, 54, an Al Qaeda operative who helped set up a laboratory in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he tried to cultivate anthrax, has been jailed three times by Malaysian authorities for terror-related offenses in the past 16 years.
“He (Yazid) will be released in the middle of next year,” Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, head of Malaysian police’s Special Branch counterterrorism division, told the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals (IACSP) on Monday.
