SINGAPORE, Feb 9 — A self-radicalised Malaysian who worked for an airfreight company here has been deported after being arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) last month, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said today.
Muhammad Nur Hanief Abdul Jalil, 33, worked as a driver with the company and had access to the Changi Airfreight Centre, a restricted area. The centre provides airfreight services to Changi Airport.
Investigations did not point to Hanief having attempted to radicalise others or planned to launch terrorist attacks in Singapore. “(But) his radicalisation renders him a security threat to Singapore. His work pass was therefore cancelled, and he was repatriated to Malaysia in Feb 2018,” the MHA said in a statement.
The ministry said the Malaysian had been going online since 2008 to peruse the teachings by foreign extremist preachers such as Imran Hosein, Zakir Naik and Anjem Choudary. He became convinced that he should travel to Syria or Palestine to take part in the armed conflict, and decided to act on his plan late last year.
“He was prepared to join any militant group there”, including the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, MHA added.
The Malaysian police have taken Hanief into custody, and he is being detained under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) for further investigation, TODAY understands. Sosma replaced the repealed Internal Security Act in 2012 and is used by Putrajaya to combat terrorism.
Under Sosma, police may detain a suspect for 28 days and withhold legal representation for two days. ― TODAY
