Inspector-General of Police Fuzi Harun said the police had engaged with their US counterparts to seek the return of Mohd Farik Amin and Mohammed Nazir Lep, who were arrested in Thailand.

He said they had also requested Wisma Putra to write to the US government.

“We have appealed to them to release our two citizens but we have yet to receive a positive response.

”Our efforts to secure their freedom are on-going,” he told reporters after attending the presentation of national awards by Chief Minister Shafie Apdal to Sabah policemen here today.

Farik was arrested in June 2003 and Nazir was picked up two months later.

Both men had become friends while studying at the Politeknik Sultan Abdul Halim in Jitra, Kedah, and following their arrests, were classified as “enemy combatants’ by the US and sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2006.

It was reported that the duo had been recruited by Indonesian al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, to join the group’s suicide missions.

Fuzi said it was up to the US if they deemed that Farik and Nazir deserved a trial on US soil, and if convicted, made to serve their sentences in Malaysia.

“We’ll wait for the US authorities’ decision.

“Although one of them seems to have repented, the other is still a bit tough, so it all depends on the US,” he said.

Meanwhile, Shafie said he will meet with the Philippine ambassador to Malaysia and raise, among others, potential security issues for Sabah in relation to the push for the establishment of a Bangsamoro region in the southern Philippines.

He was aware that trouble might not be too far away, with some being opposed towards the referendum for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

“We’ll see how this can be managed properly so it doesn’t worry Malaysians, particularly Sabahans.

“We can’t take this (security issue) lightly, elements might infiltrate our borders.”

Fuzi said the police were also monitoring the situation in the southern Philippines.