Singapore detains two "Syria-bound militants" without trial
After ISIS affiliated militants allegedly tried to fire rockets into Singapore from Indonesia, the wealthy southeast Asian city state announced that it has detained two 'Syria bound militants'; the two are being held in a form of administrative detention.
Singapore has been on heightened vigilance since Indonesian police arrested a group of men they believed were plotting a rocket attack on the wealthy city-state with the help of a Syrian-based ISIS militant.
A major financial centre and the most westernised society in Southeast Asia, multi-ethnic Singapore is increasingly seen as a target for radicalised religious militants, authorities say.
Rosli bin Hamzah, a 50-year-old car washer, and Mohamed Omar bin Mahadi, a 33-year-old waste truck driver, received two-year detention orders this month, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement.
Both had been radicalised, the ministry said, adding they were prepared to die as martyrs in Syria.
Singapore, which has not suffered a militant attack in decades, deploys extensive surveillance and is largely seen as one of the safest countries in the world. But some critics say security comes with a cost to civil liberties.
The Internal Security Act, under which the two were held, has been criticised by rights groups for allowing detention without trial.
Authorities have detained or repatriated dozens of people in the past year, most of them migrant Bangladeshi workers, for suspected links to militant fund-raising or other "terrorism-related activities".
