Yazid Sufaat

Sufaat was born in Johor Lama, Malaysia in 1964. In 1987, he graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a degree in biochemistry.[2] He then served in the Malaysian army as a medical technician, rising to the rank of Captain.[1]

Sufaat is now believed to be one of al-Qaeda's main anthrax researchers.[2][3][4][5] In 1993 Sufaat set up a pathology laboratory called Green Laboratory Medicine, at which he subsequently tried to weaponise anthrax on behalf of al-Qaeda.[1] From 5 to 8 January 2000, a major meeting of al-Qaeda and JI personnel was held in Kuala Lumpur[6] (see 2000 Kuala Lumpur al-Qaeda Summit); four of those who attended stayed with Sufaat at his home.[7] He is also suspected of providing employment documents to Zacarias Moussaoui, and providing lodging for two of the 11 September hijackers, namely Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.[7]

From the 9/11 Commission report:[7]

The al-Qaeda-JI partnership yielded a number of proposals that would marry al-Qaeda's financial and technical strengths with JI's access to materials and local operatives. Here, Hambali played the critical role of coordinator, as he distributed al-Qaeda funds earmarked for joint operations. In one especially notable example, Atef turned to Hambali when al-Qaeda needed a scientist to take over its biological weapons program. Hambali obliged by introducing a U.S.-educated JI member, Yazid Sufaat, to Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kandahar. In 2001, Sufaat would spend several months attempting to cultivate anthrax for al-Qaeda in a laboratory he helped set up near the Kandahar airport.

Sufaat, through his company Green Laboratory Medicine, acquired four tonnes of ammonium nitrate for JI/MILF bomb-maker Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi.[8] The intended bombing spree in Singapore (see Singapore embassies attack plot) was averted by the arrests in Singapore on 9 December 2001 and the capture of al-Ghozi in the Philippines the following month.

At the time of the 9/11 attacks, Sufaat was still in Afghanistan whence he fled via Pakistan to Malaysia[5] where he was soon apprehended. He is still wanted by the United States in connection with 9/11.[5]

His assets—under the name of Yazud bin Sufaat—were frozen on 5 September 2003 by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.[9] Four days later, under the name Yazid Sufaat, he was embargoed by the United Nations Security Council Committee 1267 as an affiliate of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.[10] His expired Malaysian passport carries number A10472263. As of April 2007 he was being held in the Kamuting prison under Malaysia's Internal Security Act,[1] but he was released with no advanced notification by the Malaysian Government on 10 December 2008 with the Home Minister claiming that he was "sufficiently reformed".[11] In early 2013, Sufaat was again detained in Malaysia under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act for incitement of terrorist acts. He was to have been tried.[12]