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How terror suspect escaped
21/04/2008 14:01 - (SA)
Singapore - An unsecured bathroom window and complacent guards allowed a top terror suspect to flee a high-security prison in February, Singapore's deputy prime minister said on Monday.
In announcing the results of a probe into the embarrassing escape, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng said Mas Selamat Kastari, who allegedly once plotted to hijack an airplane and crash it into the city-state's international airport, had planned his February 27 escape over time.
Speaking in Parliament, Wong said Mas Selamat climbed out of a ventilation window of a toilet cubicle before a scheduled weekly visit with his family. The window did not have a grill on it, Wong said.
"In my view, the security weakness of this window is the single most crucial factor which enabled Mas Selamat to escape," said Wong, who is also home affairs minister.
The investigation found that Mas Selamat had 11 minutes to escape, between the time he was taken to the bathroom and when guards raised the alert, he said.
Month-long nationwide manhunt
Wong said Mas Selamat used this time to shave and enter a urinal cubicle - closing the door behind him. In the cubicle, he turned on a tap, flipped his trousers over the concrete ledge above the urinal cubicle door, and escaped through the window, he said.
Wong said there was no video recording of the escape because closed-circuit television coverage of the area was being upgraded at the time.
The escape triggered a month-long nationwide manhunt in which police, special operations officers, elite Gurkha guards and soldiers combed the island nation's forests.
Wong said the probe found no evidence suggesting that it was an inside job, but said the guards should have kept Mas Selamat in sight by preventing him from closing the cubicle door.
"Complacency, for whatever reason ... had crept into the operating culture" at the detention centre, Wong said.
Wong said the officers responsible for Mas Selamat's escape would be disciplined, penalised and replaced.
Key trigger in the terrorist network
Security breaches are rare in tightly controlled Singapore, an island nation of 4.5 million people that is a 45 minute boat ride from Indonesia where Mas Selamat is alleged to have links with the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network, blamed for a series of attacks that have killed more than 250 people since 2002.
In response to lawmakers' questions, Wong said authorities believed Mas Selamat had not managed to flee the country, and that there is a risk the fugitive would launch a attack on the city-state in retaliation.
"We consider him to be a key trigger in the terrorist network," he said. "If he could leave Singapore and connect back with his (Jemaah Islamiyah) friends, they could well launch a revenge attack
Mas Selamat is said to be the former commander of the local arm of the Jemaah Islamiyah.
- AP
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