Three relatives of Mas Selamat Kastari have been jailed for harbouring the Jemaah Islamiyah leader after he had escaped from Whitley Road Detention Centre on Feb 27, 2008.
Home affairs Minister K. Shanmugam revealed this in a statement in Parliament today (Nov 22) that Mas Selamat had stayed overnight at the Tampines home of Asmom, the fugitive's brother.
While there, Asmom, his wife Aisah and daughter Nur Aini helped Mas Selamat in various ways, including giving him money, providing him food and helping him disguise himself as a woman to evade detection.
SINGAPORE - Some 48 hours after Mas Selamat Kastari escaped from Whitley Road Detention Centre, while thousands of armed security personnel were searching the island for him, the fugitive terrorist found refuge, thanks to his niece Nur Aini Asmom, who let him into her family's Tampines flat.
Nur Aini, then a 25-year-old trainee teacher, let him rest in her bedroom, gave him food and water and helped to destroy the clothing he wore to the flat, including the attire he had been wearing while under detention.
The next day, she applied make-up on her uncle and put a tudung on him so as to disguise him as a woman. Before he left the flat, she gave him a set of new clothes, a baseball cap, water, a snack, an illumination stick, air-tight re-sealable plastic bags to pack the items and a backpack to carry them.
At his request, she also gave him a map of Singapore showing part of Malaysia.
Dr Yaacob Ibrahim disappointed with Mas Selamat's family
SINGAPORE : Minister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim has said he is "very disappointed" that Mas Selamat Kastari's relatives had helped him escape, a sentiment echoed by others in the Malay-Muslim community.
But many said the focus should now be to rehabilitate and guide them back into mainstream society.
Dr Yaacob said harbouring is a very serious offence, more so when it involves a national threat like Mas Selamat.
He said: "There can be no excuse or sufficient explanation that will help us get over the disappointment.
Not a reflection of the Muslim community
THE actions of Mas Selamat Kastari's brother Asmom and his family in helping him escape two years ago are not a reflection of the wider Malay-Muslim community, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam told Parliament.
The community, he noted, had disapproved of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) leader's deeds, and took part in the manhunt for him after he broke out of Whitley Road Detention Centre in 2008.
'We should therefore not allow this episode to affect the trust and goodwill that has been built up over the years between our different communities,' he said.
'Instead, this episode should reinforce how important it is for every Singaporean to unite together and assist the security agencies to overcome the threat of terrorism from a small number of persons in our society.'
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