US-based academic not on police radar, says IGP

Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain said Malaysian authorities have no issue with US-based political scientist Ahmet T Kuru.

PETALING JAYA: The nation’s top cop has denied claims by US-based academic Ahmet T Kuru that the police had approached him and were investigating him.

Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain said the authorities had no issue with the Turkish-American director of Islamic and Arabic studies at the San Diego State University.

“We had no intention of arresting him,” he told FMT.

Earlier today, Kuru told FMT he was close to arrest while at KLIA yesterday, following accusations that he was a terrorist.

He claimed that he was approached by people who identified themselves as policemen while he was waiting to board a flight to Lahore.

Kuru also alleged that a “tall plainclothes policeman” sat next to him and said the police had been informed that he was a terrorist.

He said one of the “policemen” had also attempted to snatch his passport, but was stopped when Kuru yelled at him.

However, Razarudin said checks had shown that no policeman had approached Kuru as claimed.

“There is no issue with him,” he said.

Kuru made headlines after his book launch, initially scheduled at the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia on Monday, was called off.