How Mas Selamat Escaped

AN UNSECURED window in a toilet cubicle at the Whitley Road Detention Centre gave Mas Selamat Kastari, leader of the Singapore Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorist network, an opening to his jailbreak on Feb 27, 2008.

'Noting this critical security weakness, he then actively planned to escape. He began a routine to close the door of that toilet cubicle and turn on the tap in the cubicle on his next visits,' said Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng.

'He was trying to get the guards used to this routine during his family visits. He also started hanging his pants over the top of the cubicle door, so as to deceive the guards into thinking that if his pants were still hanging over the top of the door, he was still inside the cubicle'.

He told the House that after Mas Selamat had bolted, officers from the Internal Security Department (ISD) never gave up and did not rest until they managed to track him down to where he was hiding in Malaysia. LINK