Mas Selamat Kastari

Mas Selamat Kastari
Picture taken from Interpol website
Born	(1961-01-23) 23 January 1961 (age 56) Kendal, Central Java, Indonesia
Occupation	Former bus mechanic, alleged head of the Singapore branch of Jemaah Islamiyah
Criminal charge	None
Criminal status	Arrested and held by Singapore Police Force, under the Internal Security Act
Children	Five

Mas Selamat Kastari (born 23 January 1961), an 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. 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.

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

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 was believed to begin his involvement in the 1990s when he joined Darul Islam, a precursor movement to the Jemaah Islamiah (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.