The Straits Times –
1 Mar 08
A man
has been arrested for making a prank call to the police claiming to
be escaped terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari.
The 58-year-old used
a public phone in Haig road to call the police emergency line 999
on Thursday evening, saying he was the former Jemaah Islamiah
leader.
During the call, he
even made threats to attack “multiple locations”, the police
said.
Within minutes, the
police traced the call to a public telephone at Block 10, Haig
Road, and arrested the man under the United Nations (Anti-Terrorism
Measures) Regulations.
These regulations
came into effect here in 2001 after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks
in the United State to prosecute people who stoke fears of
terrorist attacks by raising false alarms.
In January this
year, a civil servant was sentenced to 30 months’ jail for sending
hoax bomb messages to government websites.
The Naitonal
Environment Agency’s senior manager, Neo Khoon Sing, 38, sent three
e-mail messages warning of possible terrorist attacks in Bedok and
against Cabinet ministers.
The maximum penalty
for this offence is a fine of up to S$100,000, or a prison term of
up to five years, or both.
The
telecommunication Act also provides harsh punishment for hoax
calls: a maximum fine of up to S$50,000 and a jail term of up to
seven years.
The police urged the
public not to make prank calls as they “tax the police’s resources
unnecessarily”.
This hoax call on
Mas Selamat is the first since he escaped from the Internal
Security Department’s detention centre off Whitley Road on
Wednesday afternoon.
