Singapore charges 6 Bangladeshi workers with terror financing [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Singapore charges 6 Bangladeshi workers with terror financing

Local May 28, 2016

Six Bangladeshi workers, who were detained in Singapore in April on allegation of planning attacks in Bangladesh, were charged by a Singapore court on Friday with financing terrorism, reported news agencies and newspapers in Singapore.
The six, aged between 26 and 31, were amongst eight men arrested in Singapore between late March and early April under a Singapore’s colonial-era law, the Internal Security Act, which allowed authorities to detain suspects for lengthy periods without trial.
A prosecutor told Reuters that the other two were still facing detention orders but had not been charged.
Agence France-Presse reported that the workers were charged with raising funds for an alleged plot to launch terrorist attacks in Bangladesh.
The charge sheets said the six – Rahman Mizanur, 31, Mamun Leakot Ali, 29, Miah Rubel, 26, Zaman Daulat, 34, Md Jabath Kysar, 30, and Sohel Hawlader, 29, – contributed, collected or possessed funds ranging from Sg$60 to Sg$1,360 for the plot.
The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in jail and a maximum fine of Sg$500,000 ($364,000), or both.
Security was tight at the state court as three armoured vehicles carrying the suspects under heavy armed escort entered the premises, reported Reuters.
Rahman was identified by the ministry of home affairs last month as the group’s ringleader.
Two of the six – Miah Rubel and Jabath – were also charged with possession of finances for terrorist purposes under the same Act, reported Straits Times.
All the workers but Mamun said told the court in Bangla through a court interpreter that they intended to plead guilty.
They might plead guilty at a subsequent hearing on May 31.
Mamun, however, said he never contributed to funding any group’s activities in Bangladesh.
‘We just had an exchange of funds between ourselves,’ he said after the judge asked him about a transfer of money with another of the suspects.
A pre trial conference for Mamun was posted for June 9.
The six were the first to be prosecuted under the Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act, said a Singapore police spokesman in a statement on Friday.
The Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act is one of several pieces of legislation passed in 2002, in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States and the foiled Jemaah Islamiyah plot in Singapore.
The police spokesman added that the Commercial Affairs Department had started its investigations into the six on April 8.
‘Singapore takes a serious view of any support for terrorism-related activities, including terrorism financing,’ said the spokesman.
‘The authorities will take firm and decisive action against any person who provides, collects and/or possesses property, for terrorist purposes.’
The latest detentions were the second group of Bangladeshis investigated by Singapore in recent months.
As part of the same investigation, Singapore Internal Security Department on April 29 deported five Bangladeshi workers on suspicion of having links with militancy. On their arrival at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, police arrested them. They were interrogated being remanded in police custody. They are now in jail.
As part of the investigations, the Singapore home ministry statement read that another five Bangladeshi workers in Singapore were investigated under Internal Security Act and investigations showed that they were not involved.
This is the second such incident of arrest of Bangladeshis on suspicion of having radical links, as the Singapore Internal Security Department arrested 27 Bangladeshi men between November 16 and December 1 in 2015 under the Internal Security Act.