M`SIAN HOME MINISTER CONFIRMS MAS SELAMAT`S CAPTURE

PUTRAJAYA, May 8 (Bernama) -- Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun
Hussein Friday confirmed that Mas Selamat Kastari, the suspected leader of the
Jemaah Islamiah militant group who escaped from a Singapore detention centre
last year, has been caught in Malaysia.

"Yes, I can confirm that he is under our detention and is being investigated
right now. But I can't go into the detail because this is a sensitive issue
which involves three parties namely Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

"It also involves intelligence agencies of the three governments and it is
something that I do not want to jeopardise," he told a news conference here
Friday.

Malaysian authorities would ensure that Mas Selamat would not escape for the
second time, he said.

Meanwhile in JOHOR BAHARU, a source told Bernama that Mas Selamat was
arrested in an operation by the Johor police about a month ago.

Bernama was informed that special branch police officers arrested Mas
Selamat near Skudai, about 25km from the Johor Baharu city.

"We know that he has relatives staying in Skudai," the source, who is
familiar with the operation to nab the JI leader, told Bernama.

Mas Selamat had been the subject of a massive manhunt after he slipped out
of the Whitley Road maximum security detention centre in Singapore on Feb 27
last year.

He was alleged to have masterminded a plot to hijack a jetliner and crash it
into Singapore's Changi Airport.

He fled Singapore in 2001 but was captured by the Indonesian police on
Bintan Island in 2006 and sent to the city-state.

Bernama was also informed that Mas Selamat was arrested under the Internal
Security Act but he was still in police custody and had not been sent to the
Kamunting Detention Centre in Taiping, Perak where ISA detainees are held.

-- BERNAMA