Published May 28, 2009

Mas Selamat held in M'sia under ISA

	Email this article
	Print article
	Feedback

(KUALA LUMPUR) Singaporean militant Mas Selamat bin Kastari, who was captured in Malaysia last month, has been detained under security laws for a two-year term, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said yesterday.

Threat: Mas Selamat being escorted by an Indonesian security squad in an earlier capture in Riau. He has now been detained for a two-year term at northern Malaysia's Kamunting centre.

Mas Selamat - the alleged head of the Singapore cell of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which has links to Al-Qaeda - had been on the run for more than a year after escaping from a high-security detention centre in Singapore.

Mr Najib confirmed reports that the 48-year-old Islamic militant had been detained under Malaysia's Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for indefinite detention without trial.

'This is Malaysia's decision. He is a threat to Malaysia's security - that is why he has been detained. Obviously, he's a threat to Singapore and Malaysia,' he told a press conference.

Mr Najib said Malaysian authorities needed to extract 'more information' from Mas Selamat and downplayed suggestions that Singaporean authorities would be anxious to have him in their custody. 'Singapore expected us to detain him,' he said.

Mas Selamat was captured in April in Malaysia's southern state of Johor, where he had reportedly been hiding out since February 2008 when he escaped from detention. The state Bernama news agency said Mas Selamat was being held at the Kamunting detention centre in Malaysia's north with the other ISA detainees, who are mostly Islamic militants. -- AFP