The Malaysian side of it gives the ff. version (from an AFP report). The man is currently under indefinite detention without trial in a successor law, the Internal Security Act (ISA), to the colonial Preservation of Public Security Order (PPSO). The ISA allows for an initial 60-day detention, following which a detention order for renewable 2-year terms can be issued. In that initial 60-day period, a person is often held incognito for the first two weeks or more, after which, if s/he 'cooperates' s/he is allowed strictly supervised visits from family. If a person 'breaks', it often happens in those first two weeks.
The Star (Malaysia)
Nation Saturday February 11, 2006
Malaysian was to be trained to crash plane into Los Angeles skyscraper
KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian was to be trained as a pilot by Al-Qaeda to crash a plane into a Los Angeles skyscraper but told officials he pulled out after witnessing the Sept 11 attacks in 2001, a former security official said yesterday.
US President George W. Bush has said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, thought to be one of the masterminds of the 2001 attacks, planned to hijack a plane and fly the jet into LA's tallest building, the 310m US Bank Tower, also known as Library Tower.
Bush said that instead of using Arab hijackers, as in the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the plot called for "young men from South-East Asia whom he believed would not arouse as much suspicion."
An ex-top security official in Malaysia said Malaysian engineer Zaini Zakaria was among three men that were being trained by Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network to take part in the attack.
Zaini had been sent to train in the movement's camps located in Afghanistan in 1999, the former security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
It was in these camps that he met the network's top people, including Hambali, a leader of the Al-Qaeda affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), he said.
Zaini then returned to Malaysia and obtained a licence to fly a small plane, and was to have started learning how to fly a jet in Australia.
"That part of the plan never materialised. Malaysian authorities managed to detain him in 2002," said the source.
Zaini, who was never told about the details of his mission, later told Malaysian officials that he decided to pull out of the plan after he witnessed the Sept 11 tragedy.
Zaini claimed that he did not want "that kind of jihad," he said. The airplane plot was later foiled with the help of Asian nations and never got beyond the discussion stage.
He is currently being held under Malaysia's strict legislation which allows for two-year detention periods that can be renewed indefinitely.Zaini was also one of the 10 Malaysians, alleged members of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network, who had their names listed on a Specially Designated Global Terrorists' notification list of the United Nations Security Council to have their financial assets frozen worldwide.
Zaini, 38, was arrested in mid December 2002 by the Malaysian police under the Internal Security Act. He was sent to the Kamunting Detention camp in Taiping, Perak, on Feb 10, 2003.
According to a source, Zaini was also linked to the Bali nightclub bombing in Kuta in 2002.
On Thursday, Zaini's lawyer Edmund Bon said the US accusation of his client's involvement in the plot was unfounded.
"If they have evidence that Zaini was involved in such a plan, the Government should charge him in court and allow him a fair trial," he said.
Bon said that as an ISA detainee, Zaini cannot seek a court order to challenge the merit or reason of his detention but at the same time the authorities, including the Americans, would accused him of being a terrorist. – AFP