Two self-radicalised S’poreans released from ISA detention in July after making ‘good progress’

Two self-radicalised Singaporeans detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) were released in July after showing “good progress” in their rehabilitation, said the Internal Security Department (ISD).

ISD said in a Nov 30 statement that Suderman Samikin, 51, and Mustafa Sultan Ali, 60, were assessed to no longer pose a security threat that required preventive detention. They were released on restriction orders, which limit their movements and access to the Internet.

Suderman, a former delivery assistant, was detained under the ISA in July 2019.

He became radicalised in 2013 after encountering lectures by Anwar al-Awlaki – an Al-Qaeda ideologue killed in 2011 by an American drone strike – and propaganda by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), MHA said in 2019.

By 2014, he had bought into ISIS’ violent ideology, and was prepared to take up arms to fight alongside the terror group in Syria. Among other things, he became acquainted with foreign pro-ISIS elements through Facebook, and offered one of his contacts financial assistance to undertake armed violence in Syria.

After he was jailed in July 2014 for drug consumption, he continued to harbour intentions to join ISIS, and was arrested under the ISA upon his release from prison.

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Mustafa was detained under the ISA in July 2015 after he was arrested in Turkey and deported. He was the first Singaporean to be arrested abroad for trying to join ISIS.

Investigations showed that Mustafa had been deeply radicalised by the terrorist ideology of ISIS and other radical ideologues he had come across online, said MHA in a 2015 statement.

Mustafa also said he was prepared to carry out ISIS-directed terrorist attacks against Western establishments in Singapore.

Separately, ISD said restriction orders against four other Singaporeans were allowed to lapse upon their expiry between March and September 2023 as they had also shown “good progress” in their rehabilitation.

They are:

• Mohamed Fairuz Junaidi, 43, who supported ISIS and had considered travelling to Syria to join the group;
• Syaikhah Izzah Zahrah Al Ansari, 28, who supported ISIS and was prepared to undergo training and engage in armed combat with ISIS in Syria;
• Amiruddin Sawir, 60, who was involved in the armed conflict in Yemen when he was studying there between 2013 and 2015; and
• Abu Thalha Samad, 32, a former Jemaah Islamiyah member who was detained in September 2017 following his deportation from a regional country.