Singapore jails 2 more Bangladeshis

A Singapore court yesterday jailed two more Bangladeshi workers for different terms for financing terrorism.

Mamun Leakot Ali, 30, was sentenced to two and a half years in jail, and Zaman Daulat, 34, to two years in prison, reports Singapore-based The Straits Times.

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They are among a group of six workers who were charged under the Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act in May. The two pleaded guilty to their crimes yesterday morning.

The other four pleaded guilty and were jailed between two and five years last month. They are Mizanur Rahman, Rubel Miah, Jabath Kysar and Ismail Hawlader Sohel.

Lawyers Noor Marican and Ramesh Tiwary represented both Mamun and Zaman without any fees.

Addressing the court, Marican said both men were deeply apologetic to the people of Singapore for causing fear and harm through their actions.

Pleading for a more lenient sentence, Marican added that both men had committed their crimes in a moment of foolishness, and were now deeply ashamed of bringing down the reputation of Islam and other Muslims.

Speaking for both men, Marican said: "He is a Muslim, he believes in Islam, and he realises that these are not teachings of his religion... It is not the way of Islam."

The group called themselves the Islamic State in Bangladesh (ISB) and were collecting or providing money to fund terrorist attacks back home, according to The Straits Times report.

Their goal was to topple their government, set up an Islamic state and bring it under the self-declared caliphate of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Two other ISB men were also detained in April. They have been given two-year detention orders under the Internal Security Act of Singapore (ISA) and have not faced formal charges in court yet.

Court documents show the men had clearly defined roles.

Mamun was the group's deputy leader, while Zaman was in the group's security council.

On April 29 this year, Singapore deported five Bangladeshis for their suspected militancy links.

Back then, the Singapore authorities had said the five were investigated as part of a crackdown on the so-called ISB, and it was found that “they possessed and/or proliferated jihadi-related materials, or supported the use of armed violence in pursuit of a religious cause”.

However, their involvement with the ISB was not found, according to Singapore's home affairs ministry.

The five are Mizanur Rahman alias Ghalib Hasan of Brahmanbaria, Rana Mia Pilot of Bogra, Alamgir Hossain of Meherpur, Tanjimul Islam of Chandpur, and Masud Rana alias Sontu Khan of Pabna.

On May 3, law enforcers arrested them from the capital's Banasree area over their suspected militancy links, and filed a case against them under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Between November 16 and December 1 last year, the Singapore authorities arrested 27 Bangladeshi construction workers for “supporting armed jihad ideology of terrorist groups such as Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda”.

Of them, 26 were deported to Bangladesh.

On December 21 that year, police arrested 14 of them, finding their alleged links with militancy and kept the rest under surveillance.

Officials of the Detective Branch of police then said the deportees had no links to the IS or al-Qaeda. But 14 of them had ties with banned local outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and its detained spiritual leader Jasim Uddin Rahmani.

Later, a case was filed against the 14 under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The DB, which is investigating the two cases, is yet to submit charge sheets.