[AsiaOne] A 33-year-old Singaporean Daesh supporter was arrested in August, the Ministry of Home Affairs said yesterday. Asrul Alias, a technician, has been placed under a two-year Restriction Order which curtails his movements and activities. The ministry said in a statement that he will undergo religious counseling while under restriction.The ministry also said Asrul began reading online material about the conflict in Syria in 2014 and started viewing online sermons by radical clerics and videos of Daesh fighters in combat. He shared pro-Daesh propaganda on social media and also spoke up against criticisms of Daesh that he encountered online.
Asrul stopped posting pro-Daesh materialafter being warned by a family member and a friend last year and early this year. But he remained supportive of Daesh and continued to view its propaganda online.
In its statement, the ministry also announced that Singaporean Mohammad Razif Yahya, 28, was released conditionally from detention after it was assessed that he no longer posed a security threat that required him to be detained. He had been apprehended in August last year for voluntarily fighting Houthis in Yemen in January 2010.