DPM Wong details events on day of Mas Selamat's escape
AT SOME point between 3.54pm and 4.05pm on Feb 27, from the time he entered the toilet to the time the alert was raised, Mas Selamat Kastari made a break for it.
In a urinal cubicle and out of his guards' sight, he escaped out of a ventilation window and is then thought to have made it over the Whitley Road Detention Centre's double perimeter fence via the roof of an enclosed walkway.
The toilet window (above) that Mas Selamat is believed to have escaped from. It had no grilles on it but had a sawn-off handle.
Yesterday, the highly anticipated full account of the terrorist leader's escape as promised by Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng was finally disclosed in Parliament.During an hour-long speech listened to by rapt MPs, Mr Wong told in vivid detail the story of an escape plan that appeared to have been hatched ahead of time and that seized on a 'confluence' of human errors and physical security lapses.The lapses include a window with no grilles, guards who failed in their duties and CCTV cameras that were not commissioned. These cameras were neither recording nor actively monitored.His assessment of these breaches was damning: 'The mistakes have turned out to be so simple as to appear silly and incredible.'A five-page executive summary from the report of the Committee of Inquiry (COI) set up to investigate the escape was also released yesterday.The Minister's comments, together with the report's summary, gave the public, for the first time, a detailed picture of what was likely to have happened on the day Mas Selamat fled.On that day, the 47-year-old Jemaah Islamiah leader had been due for a visit from his family members between 4pm and 4.30pm.At 3.30pm, he was escorted from his cell by three people: two Gurkha guards and a Special Duty Operative.The Special Duty Operative's job was to make administrative arrangements for family visits, which included supervising the movement of detainees.From the cell block, he was first taken to a locker block to change into civilian clothes. Detainees are allowed to dress in civilian clothes for family visits.Inside the locker room, Mas Selamat put his plan into action.He asked the guard for a curtain so he could change behind it. As there were no curtains, he stood behind a column of lockers to change.That was to be the first of two times in less than half an hour that the guards let him out of their sight.While unseen, it is believed that Mas Selamat put on at least two layers of clothes. He emerged dressed in a light yellow baju kurung and greenish-grey trousers.He would later use this pair of trousers as a decoy while he bolted to freedom.He was also supposed to return his detention garb to the guards, but did not.After changing, Mas Selamat was escorted to the visitation block. At 3.54pm, he went into the toilet at the visitation block to shave and comb his hair.One guard followed him into the toilet, while the other waited outside.After shaving, he entered a urinal cubicle and shut the door.He flipped his trousers over the concrete ledge above the cubicle door and turned on a water tap inside.It was a routine he had done before.Mr Wong explained: 'Prior to his escape, during previous family visits, Mas Selamat had partially closed the urinal cubicle door on some occasions and then completely closed the urinal cubicle door on subsequent occasions'.Behind the closed door, the second time he was given privacy that afternoon, he pushed open the ventilation window and squeezed through.Unlike most windows in the Whitley Road centre, the one in that toilet was not secured with grilles. This was due to a miscommunication between the Internal Security Department (ISD) and the vendor over which windows in the building were to be grilled.In place of grilles, the superintendent of the Whitley centre told the vendor to saw off the handle of the window.Once out the window, Mas Selamat is thought to have used a water pipe running vertically along the wall to help him climb down. Smudges were found on the pipe.A packet of seven rolls of toilet paper found on the ground next to the wall could have been used to cushion his fall.From there, his exact path is unclear. The COI surmised that he scaled the fence, climbed onto the roof of an enclosed walkway and jumped over the fence where the two converged. This point was 20m away from the window.How did Mas Selamat, who runs with a limp, manage all this without raising an alarm?First, CCTV cameras monitoring the outside of the toilet were not commissioned as they were part of an upgrade to the centre's CCTV system.Second, the guard outside the toilet door who noticed that Mas Selamat was taking a long time did not investigate immediately.Instead, he alerted the guard standing outside the toilet, who in turn informed the Special Duty Operative.The female officer then informed a fourth person, Mas Selamat's male Assistant Case Officer, to check on him in the male toilet.When the case officer finally kicked the cubicle door in and the alarm was raised, some 11 minutes had passed since he first went for a shave.A re-enactment of the possible escape took 49 seconds.Mr Wong assured MPs that action had been taken to shore up security at the centre. Among other measures, the toilet window has been sealed, the height of the perimeter fence is being raised and the director of prisons will now conduct an independent annual audit.Disciplinary action will also be taken against the officers responsible, as identified in the COI report.He accepted all the COI's recommendations, he added.Mr Wong urged, in closing, that Singaporeans not 'throw the baby out with the bath water' and write off the whole ISD due to one lapse.The ISD's director had told him that he accepted responsibility and had apologised, Mr Wong noted.'The organisation and the many dedicated and committed officers who continue to serve in it are resolved to pick themselves up, recover their spirits and move forward relentlessly in their national mission. We must support them in this,' said Mr Wong.Mas Selamat continues to be the focus in Parliament today, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong expected to address the issue of government responsibility.BLEMISH ON RECORD'It is a dark stain on the record of successes which ISD has achieved in the fight against terrorism...It was the ISD which uncovered the clandestine Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network and its links to the Al-Qaeda in 2001.'PAINFUL SHOCK'This security lapse in the WRDC...came as a rude and painful shock to them; all the more when the mistakes have turned out to be so simple as to appear silly and incredible.'DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER WONG KAN SENG, in Parliament yesterday
AT SOME point between 3.54pm and 4.05pm on Feb 27, from the time he entered the toilet to the time the alert was raised, Mas Selamat Kastari made a break for it.
In a urinal cubicle and out of his guards' sight, he escaped out of a ventilation window and is then thought to have made it over the Whitley Road Detention Centre's double perimeter fence via the roof of an enclosed walkway.
The toilet window (above) that Mas Selamat is believed to have escaped from. It had no grilles on it but had a sawn-off handle.
Yesterday, the highly anticipated full account of the terrorist leader's escape as promised by Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng was finally disclosed in Parliament.During an hour-long speech listened to by rapt MPs, Mr Wong told in vivid detail the story of an escape plan that appeared to have been hatched ahead of time and that seized on a 'confluence' of human errors and physical security lapses.The lapses include a window with no grilles, guards who failed in their duties and CCTV cameras that were not commissioned. These cameras were neither recording nor actively monitored.His assessment of these breaches was damning: 'The mistakes have turned out to be so simple as to appear silly and incredible.'A five-page executive summary from the report of the Committee of Inquiry (COI) set up to investigate the escape was also released yesterday.The Minister's comments, together with the report's summary, gave the public, for the first time, a detailed picture of what was likely to have happened on the day Mas Selamat fled.On that day, the 47-year-old Jemaah Islamiah leader had been due for a visit from his family members between 4pm and 4.30pm.At 3.30pm, he was escorted from his cell by three people: two Gurkha guards and a Special Duty Operative.The Special Duty Operative's job was to make administrative arrangements for family visits, which included supervising the movement of detainees.From the cell block, he was first taken to a locker block to change into civilian clothes. Detainees are allowed to dress in civilian clothes for family visits.Inside the locker room, Mas Selamat put his plan into action.He asked the guard for a curtain so he could change behind it. As there were no curtains, he stood behind a column of lockers to change.That was to be the first of two times in less than half an hour that the guards let him out of their sight.While unseen, it is believed that Mas Selamat put on at least two layers of clothes. He emerged dressed in a light yellow baju kurung and greenish-grey trousers.He would later use this pair of trousers as a decoy while he bolted to freedom.He was also supposed to return his detention garb to the guards, but did not.After changing, Mas Selamat was escorted to the visitation block. At 3.54pm, he went into the toilet at the visitation block to shave and comb his hair.One guard followed him into the toilet, while the other waited outside.After shaving, he entered a urinal cubicle and shut the door.He flipped his trousers over the concrete ledge above the cubicle door and turned on a water tap inside.It was a routine he had done before.Mr Wong explained: 'Prior to his escape, during previous family visits, Mas Selamat had partially closed the urinal cubicle door on some occasions and then completely closed the urinal cubicle door on subsequent occasions'.Behind the closed door, the second time he was given privacy that afternoon, he pushed open the ventilation window and squeezed through.Unlike most windows in the Whitley Road centre, the one in that toilet was not secured with grilles. This was due to a miscommunication between the Internal Security Department (ISD) and the vendor over which windows in the building were to be grilled.In place of grilles, the superintendent of the Whitley centre told the vendor to saw off the handle of the window.Once out the window, Mas Selamat is thought to have used a water pipe running vertically along the wall to help him climb down. Smudges were found on the pipe.A packet of seven rolls of toilet paper found on the ground next to the wall could have been used to cushion his fall.From there, his exact path is unclear. The COI surmised that he scaled the fence, climbed onto the roof of an enclosed walkway and jumped over the fence where the two converged. This point was 20m away from the window.How did Mas Selamat, who runs with a limp, manage all this without raising an alarm?First, CCTV cameras monitoring the outside of the toilet were not commissioned as they were part of an upgrade to the centre's CCTV system.Second, the guard outside the toilet door who noticed that Mas Selamat was taking a long time did not investigate immediately.Instead, he alerted the guard standing outside the toilet, who in turn informed the Special Duty Operative.The female officer then informed a fourth person, Mas Selamat's male Assistant Case Officer, to check on him in the male toilet.When the case officer finally kicked the cubicle door in and the alarm was raised, some 11 minutes had passed since he first went for a shave.A re-enactment of the possible escape took 49 seconds.Mr Wong assured MPs that action had been taken to shore up security at the centre. Among other measures, the toilet window has been sealed, the height of the perimeter fence is being raised and the director of prisons will now conduct an independent annual audit.Disciplinary action will also be taken against the officers responsible, as identified in the COI report.He accepted all the COI's recommendations, he added.Mr Wong urged, in closing, that Singaporeans not 'throw the baby out with the bath water' and write off the whole ISD due to one lapse.The ISD's director had told him that he accepted responsibility and had apologised, Mr Wong noted.'The organisation and the many dedicated and committed officers who continue to serve in it are resolved to pick themselves up, recover their spirits and move forward relentlessly in their national mission. We must support them in this,' said Mr Wong.Mas Selamat continues to be the focus in Parliament today, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong expected to address the issue of government responsibility.BLEMISH ON RECORD'It is a dark stain on the record of successes which ISD has achieved in the fight against terrorism...It was the ISD which uncovered the clandestine Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network and its links to the Al-Qaeda in 2001.'PAINFUL SHOCK'This security lapse in the WRDC...came as a rude and painful shock to them; all the more when the mistakes have turned out to be so simple as to appear silly and incredible.'DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER WONG KAN SENG, in Parliament yesterday
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