Singapore Role in Arrest

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Singapore Role in Arrest MICA (P) 191/11/2008 FRIDAY, MAY 8 2009 ● A SINGAPORE PRESS HOLDINGS PUBLICATION ESTABLISHED 1845 90 CENTS ** Good film, but INTERVIEW WITH GRACE FU The bad you won’t see it Helping children boy of in cinemas here learn better fashion LIFE! PAGES D2&3 INSIGHT, PAGES A22&23 IN URBAN FOR BREAKING NEWS GO TO www.straitstimes.com REACH AND INTERACT ON www.stomp.com.sg SMS MMS 75557 1800-777-5557 WATCH OUR VIDEOS ON www.razor.tv MAS SELAMAT CAPTURED Fugitive who escaped from Whitley detention centre last year is tracked Singapore down and captured in Johor after role in tip-off from Singapore; he is being held for interrogation by Malaysia arrest thorities. Intelligence provided by It is believed that the fugitive had Singapore’s Internal BY LESLIE LOPEZ stayed in Johor all this time and had not Security Department late SENIOR REGIONAL travelled further north. He is also be- CORRESPONDENT lieved to be detained in Johor. last year led to a joint Sources told The Straits Times that operation between Malaysia the 48-year-old was tracked down based and Singapore’s security on intelligence provided by Singapore’s KUALA LUMPUR: Thirteen months after Internal Security Department (ISD), and a agencies that eventually his audacious escape from detention in joint operation by Malaysia and Singa- saw them arresting Mas Singapore, Mas Selamat Kastari has been pore’s security agencies eventually led to Selamat in Johor in April. caught in Malaysia. his arrest. Singapore’s most wanted terrorist was The capture of Mas Selamat brings to It was not the first time captured on April 1 while hiding in Johor, an end one of the largest manhunts ever that information from regional intelligence sources told The undertaken by Singapore and its neigh- Singapore helped to nab the Straits Times. bours for a terrorist on the run. escape artist. It is believed that he was nabbed in the A source said that the Singapore side outskirts of Johor Baru and is now being had picked up a lead on Mas Selamat’s In February 2003, held by the Malaysian authorities for in- trail towards the end of last year and pur- tip-offs by the Singapore terrogation. sued it. authorities had led It is not known how he slipped out of When that proved to be a credible Singapore or when he entered Malaysia. lead, they passed on the information to Indonesian police to Although he was arrested six weeks the Malaysian authorities. monitor Mas Selamat’s ago, the Malaysian authorities have not Mas Selamat’s arrest would have oc- movements after he arrived yet announced the capture. curred around the same time that the Ma- A senior Malaysian government offi- laysian authorities captured three other in Indonesia. They tracked cial, who spoke on condition of anonymi- people for suspected activities linked to him to Tanjung Pinang in ty, confirmed the arrest and said that the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorist net- Bintan, arresting him just Mas Selamat was being held under the work. after he arrived by ferry country’s Internal Security Act. They arrested Agus Salim, a He declined to say when the terrorist 32-year-old Indonesian, in March and from Dumai in Riau. would be handed over to the Singapore au- two Malaysians, Abdul Matin Anol Rah- After Mas Selamat was mat and Johar Hassan, on April 1. released in August 2005, Mas Selamat’s capture would also mark the third time that the Singapore the Singapore police made 126 PAGES IN ISD – which came under tremendous another request to their SIX PARTS pressure and incurred public wrath for al- Indonesian counterparts to lowing him to escape from detention – had tracked him down. track him again. Mas Selamat, who was born in Indone- PAGE 2: “That the Singapore and Malaysian security In January 2006, they sia but migrated to Singapore in his agencies work closely is well-known. Mas Selamat’s capture found him at a youth, is married and has five children – neighbourhood mosque in four boys and a girl. is yet another affirming signal of how such cooperation Recruited into the religious council of can pay dividends.” – Associate Editor Zuraidah Ibrahim Sengkaling, East Java. He the Singapore JI cell in 1992, he later be- was handed over to CALL 6388-3838 TO SUBSCRIBE OR GO TO www.sphsubscription.com.sg Singapore the following CONTINUED PAGE 4: Mas Selamat's life on the run ON PAGE A3 month..
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