Mas Selamat repatriated

[chobolan]

Saturday September 25, 2010

Mas Selamat repatriated

By ZUHRIN AZAM AHMAD
[email protected]

PETALING JAYA: Mas Selamat Kastari, the leader of the Singapore Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorist network, has been handed over to the republic. The 49-year-old militant was arrested in Johor on April 1, last year and had since been detained under the Internal Security Act. Police special task force (operation/counter terrorism) director Comm Datuk Mohamad Fuzi Harun said the Home Minister cancelled the detention order against Mas Selamat yesterday.

Back to Singapore: Mas Selamat being escorted by authorities in Tanjung Pinang on the Indonesian island of Bintan in this file photo taken in February, 2003. — Reuters

“The order was cancelled at 10.30am. “He was handed over to the Immigration Department for deportation on the same day,” he said in a statement. Mas Selamat escaped from Singapore’s Whitley Road Detention Centre on Feb 27, 2008, while under the custody of Singapore’s Internal Security Department for allegedly masterminding a plot to hijack a plane and crash it into Changi Airport.

He swam to Johor and hid in a village in Skudai until he was arrested by the Malaysian Special Branch following close cooperation between the security agencies of both countries. Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs, meanwhile, thanked the Government for repatriating Mas Selamat to the island republic.

It conveyed its deepest appreciation to the Malaysian Special Branch and the special task force tasked with Mas Selamat’s recapture. “This operation illustrates the long-standing close cooperation between the Malaysian and Singaporean security agencies, which has served both countries well.

“Mas Selamat had been arrested under the republic’s Internal Security Act. “He is currently under investigation,” the ministry said in a press release. Authorities from both countries, however, did not reveal when and where the handing over took place.

The Singapore-born Mas Selamat had also fled the city-state in 2001 when the Singaporean authorities conducted an operation to arrest suspected local JI members. However, he was captured by Indonesian police on Bintan Island in 2006, and later repatriated to the republic.

 

[Taishi Ci]

Mas Selamat being held at Whitley Road Detention Centre


Mas Selamat being held at Whitley Road Detention Centre
By Milton Sau | Posted: 25 September 2010 1947 hrs
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SINGAPORE : Terror suspect Mas Selamat Kastari is now being held at the Whitley Road Detention Centre, the same facility he had escaped from in February 2008.

Security has also been tightened at the centre since his escape.

Revealing this, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said Mas Selamat has been arrested under the Internal Security Act upon his return to Singapore.

Speaking at a constituency event, Mr Wong declined to comment on the details of Mas Selamat's escape, as the matter is now under investigation.

He said facts of the investigation will be shared with the public, but only when the findings can conclusively determine how Mas Selamat had escaped from the centre and the information does not compromise operational security. - CNA/ms

 

[Zhou Yü]

Mas Selamat no longer a security threat: Hisham


Published: Saturday September 25, 2010 MYT 8:00:00 PM
Updated: Saturday September 25, 2010 MYT 8:01:18 PM

Mas Selamat no longer a security threat: Hisham

KLUANG: Singapore Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leader Mas Selamat Kastari was handed over to the republic Saturday after it was decided that he was no longer a security threat to Malaysia. Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the decision was made after discussions between Malaysia and Singapore, besides the security and intelligence agencies as well as the special task force of both countries confirming that Mas Selamat was no longer a threat.

"I was briefed that Mas Selamat was no longer a security threat to our country. He is from Singapore and I had said before that if a foreigner arrested is not a security threat to us, he should be sent back to his country of origin," he told reporters after the Sembrong parliamentary constituency's Raya open house in Taman Sri Lambak, here.

On the suggestion that the deportation of the JI leader to Singapore could possibly be on the request made through Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's visit to Singapore recently, Hishammuddin said the request was in fact made by Singapore some time ago.

"The request was made because Mas Selamat is a Singapore citizen, but as long as we were not satisfied that he was no longer a security threat, we had to take the necessary precautions. "But from our own investigation, I felt that it was time for us to hand over Mas Selamat to the Singapore authority," he said.

Mas Selamat was arrested on April 1, last year after he was found hiding in Johor since March 2008. Before that he was arrested by the Singapore authority under the Internal Security Act, but managed to escape from the Whitley Road Detention Centre on Feb 27, last year. - Bernama