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Singapore to detail escape of alleged terrorist leader

The mystery over how an accused terrorist with a limp escaped from a tightly secured detention center in Singapore will be revealed tomorrow, seven weeks after Mas Selamat sparked the biggest manhunt in the country’s history.

Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng (黃根成) is scheduled to deliver a statement in parliament disclosing the findings of an inquiry committee amid public criticism and ridicule on the Internet about how the suspected leader of the city-state’s wing of the Jemaah Islamiah militant group managed to get away.

The committee, chaired by former High Court judge Goh Joon Seng, was formed last month to investigate.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) is also scheduled to make a statement on “government responsibility” at the parliamentary session.

Mas Selamat, accused of plotting to hijack a plane and crash it into Changi Airport, was sent to Singapore in 2006 following his arrest by Indonesian police.

The 47-year-old Mas Selamat was held in the Whitley Road Detention Center under the Internal Security Act that permits indefinite incarceration without trial.

It has so far been made public that he was being led to a room for a visit with family when he asked to go to the bathroom and apparently left through a window.

Questions filed by lawmakers were published yesterday in the Straits Times. Chiam See Tong (詹時中), one of only two opposition members in parliament, has asked how a top terrorist leader whom Singapore and Indonesia had taken great pains to apprehend could escape.

Teo Ho Pin (張和賓) and Low Thia Khiang (劉程強) sought an update on the ongoing search. Teo, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Home Affairs and Law, has asked if more can be done to get the community to be more vigilant and alert.

“I hope we find out what the weaknesses are but, more importantly, what further action is being taken to strengthen our security system, and what are we going to do now that Mas Selamat is still at large,” Teo said.

Among other questions are the estimated cost of the search and whether Singapore’s reputation abroad has been affected by the escape.

Singapore sought the help of Interpol, and there were subsequent reports that Mas Selamat was sighted in Indonesia.
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