By LOURDES CHARLES

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Suspected Jemaah Islamiah terrorist Yazid Sufaat, who allegedly abetted and housed several terrorists involved in the September 2001 attacks in the United States, has been freed from Internal Security Act detention.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said Yazid, 44, was released with another Malaysian, Sulaiman Suramin, on Nov 24.

"We released him as he had shown remorse and had repented," he added.

"His release was conditional upon his reporting to the police from time to time and not leaving the state without prior permission from us.

"Our officers will also be monitoring him, as well as several others who had been released over the past years, to ensure they do not go back to their old ways," Musa said.

It is learnt that the Government had over the past year released 17 suspected JI members, eight of them Indonesians.

Yazid, a biochemistry graduate from a US university, was detained in January 2002 and is said to have allowed his home to be used in early 2000 as a meeting place for al-Qaeda members planning the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Two of the men were identified as Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who were aboard the plane which crashed into the Pentagon in Washington.

The former, a military officer, has also been implicated in the 2000 Christmas Eve bombings in Medan, Indonesia.

He was questioned by US investigators in November 2002 over his connection with French citizen Zacarias Moussaoui, a Sept 11 suspect.

Yazid's wife, Sejahtul Dursina @ Chomel Mohamad, an IT company director in Ampang, was also detained under the ISA.

The California State University graduate was detained on April 17, 2002, and released on June 13.