Indonesia sends terror suspect to Singapore: police

JAKARTA/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): - Indonesia has arrested Singapore's most wanted man, believed to have planned bomb and plane-crash attacks on the city-state's Changi airport, and handed him to Singapore, a Jakarta official said on Monday.

The alleged plots were never carried out. Mas Selamat Kastari was jailed on Indonesia's Riau province in 2003 for 18 months on immigration charges. Police sources said that after his release he faced another immigration problem last year and was incarcerated again, this time in East Java.

It was unclear when he was freed in East Java province but National Police Spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam said police arrested him again two weeks ago.
"And because Mas Selamat Kastari was on the wanted list in Singapore, we handed him over to them," he told reporters.

Malaysia's The Star newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, had reported that Selamat was arrested in Java last week where he had gone to visit his son studying at a religious school. Indonesia and Singapore have no formal extradition treaty.

Selamat, believed to belong to the Southeast Asian Islamic militant network Jemaah Islamiah, had fled Singapore in 2001. Singapore intelligence had information that Selamat had planned to bomb Changi airport in 2002 and had also discussed with Jemaah Islamiah commander and militant cleric Hambali a plan to hijack a plane and crash it into the airport.

Source:
Reuters, February 06, 2006