2024-03-30T08:29:00+00:00
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/ Malaysian police reported, on Saturday, that they had arrested three people suspected of supplying firearms to a 36-year-old man holding an Israeli passport, a man who was arrested last week at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur.
The man, who was found in possession of a bag containing six pistols and 200 bullets when he was arrested, arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport from the UAE on March 12 using what authorities believe to be a fake French passport, Inspector-General of Police Ridha Uddin Hussein said in a press conference. .
He added that the suspect handed over an Israeli passport when the police interrogated him.
He explained that the man, whose identity was not revealed, requested the weapons after arriving in Malaysia and paid for them in cryptocurrency.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Hayat told the American Al-Hurra TV website, “I can confirm that an Israeli citizen has been arrested in Malaysia, but I cannot provide more details at the present time.”
The UAE authorities have not commented on this yet, noting that the UAE always emphasizes that its airports comply with international security standards because they possess modern and advanced technologies.
Police did not rule out the possibility that the man was a member of Israeli intelligence. He told the authorities that he entered Malaysia to chase another Israeli because of a family dispute.
Reda Al-Din said, “We do not fully trust this story because we suspect there is another agenda,” adding that the man moved between several hotels while he was in Malaysia.
Ridha Al-Din told Reuters that three Malaysians, including a couple, were arrested yesterday, Friday, and were detained in pretrial detention for seven days on suspicion of supplying weapons and driving a car for the Israeli suspect.
He added that the authorities found a gun in the couple’s car.
He said that the authorities were on high alert following the arrest of the Israeli, and had strengthened security measures around the King of Malaysia, the Prime Minister and other high-ranking figures.
Malaysia is a Muslim-majority country and a staunch supporter of the Palestinians, and has criticized Israel’s actions in the Gaza war. It houses about 600 Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
In 2018, a Palestinian scientist was shot dead in the Malaysian capital by two unknown men in an assassination that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) indicated was carried out by the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad). Israel denied these accusations.