KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Malaysia needs to improve its prosecution of terrorists as half of those arrested here for suspected involvement in terror networks are often released without being charged, according to a US government report released today.

The US Department of State’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2014 indicated that while Malaysia’s anti-terrorism legislation to curb the influence of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was effective in theory, it was only prosecuting half of the terrorism-related arrests due to “poor cooperation” between the police and prosecutors.

“Malaysia demonstrated its political will at the highest levels of government to confront the threat of ISIL and other terrorist groups.

“Malaysia’s existing legal system is capable of disrupting terrorist plots before they are carried out, and before fighters travel to foreign conflicts,” the report said.

“However, as authorities were unable to file charges in roughly half of the terrorism-related arrests, a significant challenge is Malaysia’s need to strengthen proactive cooperation between police and prosecutors from the outset of an investigation,” it added.

The report also pointed out that while Malaysia had a no-fly list that was checked against each passenger at the airports, Putrajaya did not regularly run those names through Interpol’s international database.

“Malaysia has a no-fly list, but passengers are compared to that list by the immigration officer at the port of entry and the decision to deny entry is made at the airport.

“Malaysia does not regularly screen at immigration checkpoints through Interpol,” the report stated.

Malaysia is also not a “terrorist safe haven” for the likes of ISIL, the report said, although it went on to note that “violent extremists” have been known to operate in isolated areas off the Sulu and Sulawesi Seas between Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The report also praised the country’s “well-developed anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism framework” within Bank Negara Malaysia despite the White Paper Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak submitted last year stating that Malaysia was at risk of becoming a terrorist finance hub, thus suggesting that existing laws be strengthened.

This comes after Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein acknowledged earlier this year a research conducted by the Nanyang Technological Institute of Singapore that indicated there were some 300 net sites in the region linked to terror groups.

Hishammuddin said it was widely reported that supporters of these groups had set a foothold in many countries in the Asia Pacific region, including Malaysia and Asean.