Singapore announced on Monday that a suspected Islamic militant managed to escape from a detention center two months ago mainly because of an unlocked window in the toilet — and fled without his trousers.
Wong Kan Seng, Singapore’s deputy prime minister, told parliament that Mas Selamat bin Kastari flipped his trousers above the cubicle door before escaping through a window.
“The guard had assumed that the urinal cubicle was a secure facility and that Mas Selamat could not escape from it. This assumption was wrong,” he said.
Wong said Kastari had planned his escape “over time” and that the two guards who escorted him to the toilet had “failed in their duties”.
“In my view, the security weakness of this window is the single most crucial factor which enabled Mas Selamat to escape,” he added.
Wong said he was not sure how Kastari managed to get over the double perimeter fence at the center, but said he could have “exploited a weakness” in a section of the fencing.
Kastari, the suspected leader of the Singapore cell of al Qaeda-linked militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI), escaped in February from a detention center where he was being held for allegedly plotting to crash a plane into Singapore’s airport.
Vanessa Arellano Doctor
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