In an interview to mark the 210th Police Day in Malaysia, Malaysian Deputy Commissioner, Datuk Ayob Khan, detailed how Mas Selamat escaped from detention in Singapore. Mas Selamat was for more than a year, Singapore’s most-wanted fugitive. He escaped from the Whitley Detention Centre on 27 Feb 2008 but was later caught in Johor Baru on 1 April 2009.
In an exclusive interview to Malaysian newspaper Star, the Deputy Commissioner said that Mas Selamat escaped through an unsecured bathroom window and scrambled through the perimeter fence, after which he hid for 5-days under an overhead bridge along PIE. He used the cover of darkness and the monsoon drain system to make his way to Woodlands, from where he swam across the Tebrau Straits to Stulang Laut in Johor Baru on the night of 2 March 2008.
“He kept himself afloat with the aid of empty mineral water bottles and landed at Stulang Laut at about 5.30am on March 3, 2008. After day break, he walked about 10km towards Pelangi Plaza before boarding a bus to the house of Matin in Ulu Tiram. He later moved to another hideout at Kampung Tawakal, Skudai…Mas Selamat stayed there for about a year before we finally caught up with him.” – Malaysian DCP Datuk Ayob Khan
The Malaysian police investigations revealed that Mas Selamat and his Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) accomplices planned to bring the Singapore police to its knees kidnapping Singaporean Chinese in Johor as hostages to demand the release of all JI detainees in Singapore.
“If their request was not met, all the hostages were to be ‘slaughtered’ and video-taped for distribution to the international community,” DCP Ayob said.