CFT: Defining material support

When we say the details of the charges are sketchy, what we mean is that we have not been able to find the wording of the charges. Therefore we cannot say whether the family members who hid and disguised the fugitive immediately after his escape from jail were charged with aiding a fugitive or providing material support to a suspected terrorist.

However, those questions go to sentencing, not to the principle of the act for they are matters of motive.

For the purposes of this article, it is what they did, not why they did it, that is important.

In February 2008, Mas Selamat was on remand in a Singapore jail. When relatives arrived for what was, on the face of it, a routine visit, he said he wanted to go to the toilet on his way to the visitors' room.

So far, no information has come out as to how he managed to get out of the toilet and escape the prison building, nor what MAS did for the first two days of his escape.

But the case against MAS's brother, sister in law and niece says what happened two days after the escape.

MAS turned up at his neice's home in Tampines on Singapore's north-east coast two days after his escape.

At the time, there was speculation that MAS had had help to cross from Singapore to Malaysia in that general area where the crossing is narrow. However, neither Malaysian or Singaporean authorities have confirmed exactly how he made his escape.

MAS was found hiding in plain site in a village in Malaysia more than a year after his escape. Last September - after extensive questioning by the Malaysian authorities - he was returned to Singapore. On 10th November, MAS's brother Asmom, his sister in law Aisah and their daughter Nur Aini were arrested, along with their son Mahadir, on charges of aiding his escape.

Sentenced to 12 months, 3 months and 18 months respectively, the trio - all Indonesians - may be returned to Indonesia after their release. Mahadir was not convicted of an offence but was given a judicial warning.

Evidence before the Court was that Nur Aini had provided facilities for MAS to clean himself up after his two days' in an unknown place. She had destroyed his clothes - plus the prison clothes which he still had with him. That raises the question as to who provided the first change of clothes, when and how. Then after MAS was cleaned up and rested, Nur Aini made him up to look like a woman, including fitting him with a tudong (Muslim headscarf).

The timetable now being revealed shows that MAS was still in Singapore when the border security was heavily reinforced at all checkpoints immediately after his escape and when wanted posters were splashed all over the city state within hours.

Speaking at a political party conference yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong - speaking in Malay - made a point of saying that the actions were not those of the Malay-Muslim community but of a specific family. He said that all Singaporeans recognised this to be so and that it would not affect inter-racial relations.