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.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
BARRIER BLAME: An aviation expert questioned the location of a solid wall past the end of the runway, saying that it was ‘very bad luck for this particular airplane’ A team of US investigators, including representatives from Boeing, on Tuesday examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea, while authorities were conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. Video showed the aircraft, without its landing gear deployed, crash-landed on its belly and overshoot a runaway at Muan International Airport before it slammed into a barrier and burst into flames. The plane was seen having engine trouble.
REVELRY ON HOLD: Students marched in Belgrade amid New Year’s events, saying that ‘there is nothing to celebrate’ after the train station tragedy killed 15 Thousands of students marched in Belgrade and two other Serbian cities during a New Year’s Eve protest that went into yesterday, demanding accountability over the fatal collapse of a train station roof in November. The incident in the city of Novi Sad occurred on Nov. 1 at a newly renovated train facility, killing 14 people — aged six to 74 — at the scene, while a 15th person died in hospital weeks later. Public outrage over the tragedy has sparked nationwide protests, with many blaming the deaths on corruption and inadequate oversight of construction projects. In Belgrade, university students marched through the capital
RSS