Hishammuddin confirms Mas Selamat's capture
PUTRAJAYA: Home Minister Datuk Seri
Hishammuddin Tun Hussein Friday (8 May) confirmed that Mas Selamat
Kastari, the suspected leader of the Jemaah Islamiah militant group
who escaped from a Singapore detention centre last year, has been
caught in Malaysia.
"Yes, I can confirm that he is under our detention and is being
investigated right now. But I can't go into the detail because this
is a sensitive issue which involves three parties namely Malaysia,
Singapore and Indonesia.
"It also involves intelligence agencies of the three governments
and it is something that I do not want to jeopardise," he told a
news conference here.
Malaysian authorities would ensure that Mas Selamat would not
escape for the second time, he said.
Meanwhile in JOHOR BAHRU, sources told Bernama that Mas Selamat
was arrested in an operation by the Johor police about a month
ago.
Bernama was informed that special branch police officers
arrested Mas Selamat near Skudai, about 25km from Johor Bahru
city.
"We know that he has relatives staying in Skudai," the source,
who is familiar with the operation to nab the JI leader, told
Bernama.
Mas Selamat had been the subject of a massive manhunt after he
slipped out of the Whitley Road maximum security detention centre
in Singapore on Feb 27 last year.
He was alleged to have masterminded a plot to hijack a jetliner
and crash it into Singapore's Changi Airport.
He fled Singapore in 2001 but was captured by the Indonesian
police on Bintan Island in 2006 and sent to the city-state.
Bernama was also informed that Mas Selamat was arrested under
the Internal Security Act but he was still in police custody and
had not been sent to the Kamunting Detention Centre in Taiping,
Perak where ISA detainees are held. (Bernama)
