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| Southeast Asia |
| JI bombmaker’s father among the Singaporean detained |
| 2004-01-15 |
| THE Government said it had arrested and detained seven Singaporeans between October 2002 and December last year - three more than the number previously made public - for involvement in terrorist-related activities. Among those whose names were released for the first time yesterday was Hosnay Awi, father-in-law of the Jemaah Islamiah bomb-maker Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi who died in a shootout last year with the Philippine military. The other two fresh names were Alahuddeen Abdullah, who saw combat against the Philippine military; and Al-Qaeda sympathiser Faisel Abdullah Abdat. The Home Affairs Ministry said long-time JI member Hosnay underwent operational training in 1999 with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the group fighting for a separate state in Mindanao. After JI members were arrested here in 2001 and 2002, he fled to Indonesia and went into hiding. He was arrested by the Indonesian authorities while working in a shop owned by JI members. After serving a sentence for immigration offences, he was handed over to Singapore last November and was arrested and detained by the Internal Security Department (ISD). As for Alahuddeen, he joined the MILF through his contacts with Husin Abdul Aziz, who is now under detention. He took an oath of allegiance to now-dead MILF leader Hashim Salamat around 1999 and spent two years and nine months as an MILF soldier and fought against the Philippines army. In November 2001, he sneaked into Indonesia. He then decided to return to Singapore and made a false report with the Singapore Embassy in Jakarta that his passport was stolen. Returning here the next month, he kept a low profile, but was arrested and detained in October 2002. The ministry said Faisel was arrested and detained last February. Investigations showed he knowingly gave material support, between 1999 and January 2002, to an Al-Qaeda collaborator - a foreigner of Yemeni origin involved in obtaining illegal documents. While he was not directly involved in the collaborator’s activities, he was aware of his Al-Qaeda links. Faisel was released in October last year, but remains under a Restriction Order. The four others whose detentions had already been made public previously were JI members Mohammad Aslam Yar Ali Khan, Arifin Ali, Muhammad Arif Naharudin and Muhammad Amin Mohd Yunos. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |