SingaporeÂ’s most wanted Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror suspect, Mas Selamat Kastari, has been arrested by Indonesian authorities. Indonesian anti-terror squad members nabbed Mas Selamat, 45, in Java last week. He had gone there to visit his son who was said to be studying at a religious school there. Mas Selamat allegedly changed his identity, assuming the name of Edy Heriyanto and obtained an Indonesian passport. | There's his problem. If only he'd had a Pakistani passport, everyone knows those are the best. |
If successful, Malaysian intelligence authorities may also question Mat Selamat.
| Oh, the array of tools ... |
ADDITIONAL: Singapore, 6 Feb. (AKI) - Indonesian police have arrested and returned to Singapore's authorities top terrorism suspect, Mas Selamat Kastari, who is the country's alleged leader of the al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network. A Singapore interior spokesman said on Monday that Mas Selamat - who served an 18-month prison sentence in Indonesia on immigration charges in 2003 - was sent back to Singapore on 3 February. He was arrested on 20 January with a fake identity card, according to Indonesian police.
Indonesia and Singapore have no formal extradition treaty, and Mas Selamat's arrest and deportation to Singapore is seen as a significant step forward in anti-terror cooperation between intelligence services in the region.
Singapore's intelligence obtained information that Mas Selamat tried to bomb Singapore's Changi airport in 2002, and with al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) mastermind Hambali, hatched a plan to hijack a plane and crash it into the airport, which failed to materialise. He fled Singapore in December, following a security operation launched against JI, after the authorities discovered the JI network and its plans to crash seven truck bombs at various locations around the island five years ago, Channel NewsAsia reported.
JI is believed to have masterminded the bomb attacks on Bali's tourist areas of Kuta and Jimbaran on Bali last October which killed 22 people, as well the massive nightclub bombing in 2002 which killed 202 people, the 2003 attack on the Marriot hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people, and another at the Australian embassy in 2004 which killed 11. The group's aim is to create an Islamic caliphate in southeast Asia.