Mas Selamat Kastari

Mas Selamat Kastari (born 23 January 1961), a Muslim Indonesian-born Singaporean, was for more than a year Singapore's most-wanted fugitive after escaping from detention on 27 February 2008.

The search for him has been described as the largest manhunt ever launched in Singapore.

Born in 1961 in Kendal, Central Java, in Indonesia, Mas Selamat grew up in Kaki Bukit in Singapore leading a typical childhood kampung life.

He attended the Kaki Bukit Primary School, and was known simply as "Selamat" to his neighbors.

In the early 1980s, Mas Selamat moved to a flat in Bedok Reservoir where he married and had five children.

Mas Selamat is believed to have begun his involvement with Jemaah Islamiah (JI) in the 1990s upon joining Darul Islam, a precursor movement to the JI group.

By 1992, he had joined the Singapore JI cell, and was sent to Afghanistan for training a year later.

In 1998, he studied the Taliban system of government and returned home 'deeply impressed'.

According to Singapore intelligence authorities, Mas Selamat has met Hambali, the leader of JI, and discussed various terror plots including hijacking a plane from Bangkok and crashing it into Singapore Changi Airport.

He escaped from Singapore in 2001 before authorities conducted a massive operation to arrest 13 suspected JI members in December 2001.

He was suspected of plotting to bomb Singapore Changi Airport in January 2002, and, according to the Singapore Police Force, he had initially planned to do so by crashing a plane into the airport.

However, Mas Selamat has never been formally charged with any terrorism-related offences; instead, he was detained under the country's Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial.

Mas Selamat had earlier been arrested in February 2003 in the island of Bintan, Indonesia, to assist Indonesian police in their investigations of several bombings in Indonesia in 2001 and 2002.

Mas Selamat had changed his identity, assuming the name of Edi Heriyanto and obtained an Indonesian passport.

Found in his possession was literature on making bombs and the virtue of suicide.

He was jailed for 18 months in 2003 for immigration offences.

He was, however, not handed over to Singapore upon his release, since Indonesia and Singapore do not yet have an extradition treaty.

During this period of imprisonment, he broke his left leg in a botched attempt to escape when he jumped from a high floor, resulting in him walking with a permanent limp.

In January 2006, Mas Selamat was arrested by Indonesian anti-terror squads in Java and deported to Singapore.

On 20 January 2006, he was arrested again for using a fake identity card in Java, where he was visiting his son who was said to be studying at a religious school there.

Singapore requested Mas Selamat's extradition and was handed over on 3 February 2006, being detained in Singapore under the Internal Security Act without trial.

The Malaysian intelligence authorities also wanted to question Mas Selamat who had made frequent visits to Johor before fleeing to Indonesia.

At 4:05 pm on Wednesday, 27 February 2008, the JI leader escaped from the Internal Security Department's Whitley Road Detention Centre where he was being detained.

His family were visiting him at the time, and he was being led to a room to meet them when he asked to go to the toilet.

He then fled.

A massive manhunt comprising personnel from the Singapore Police Force, the Gurkha Contingent, the Singapore Armed Forces, the Police Tactical Unit and the Police National Service Key Installation Protection Unit were deployed in the vicinity of the area immediately after the escape.

They were later aided by members of the Singapore Guards and the Singapore Armed Forces Military Police Command, before the operation was wound down over 17 hours later without success in locating the fugitive, who was believed to be unarmed.

Authorities said security was very tight at the detention centre and conducted an independent study to determine how the fugitive escaped.

Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng acknowledged that a security lapse led to his escape, and that everything was being done to recapture Mas Selamat.

The Onraet Road facility has armed guards, high wire fences and CCTV cameras.

Reactions to the escape were filled with surprise and disbelief in what Western observers describe as a country where "security breaches are virtually unheard of".

It brought serious embarrassment to the Singapore government, and many questions raised by the public and the press.

Security around the schools in the area was also beefed up to assure worried parents.

Indonesia and Malaysia announced that they stepped up their own border security in the wake of this incident.

Government authorities received more than 1100 calls on sightings of Mas Selamat.

The earliest sighting of him was in a back road near MacRitchie Reservoir leading to Toa Payoh Lorong 1, right behind Braddell View Estates.

An urgent worldwide security alert, or Orange Notice, was issued by INTERPOL to each of its 186 National Central Bureaus following a request from Singapore.

The alert was later changed to red.

He was eventually recaptured in Skudai, Malaysia, on 1 April 2009, over a year after his escape, and has since been returned to Singapore.

His escape was found to be one of the events in Singapore's history that Singaporeans were most aware of, with 95% being aware of it.