Mas Selamat Kastari

According to the media, Mas Selamat was captured in the early morning of 1 April in a secluded house in Kampung Tawakal, an obscure village with a population of less than 100 in Skudai, 25 kilometres (16 mi) northwest of Johor Bahru. According to witness, Mohd Saat Marjo, 57, a villager who lived opposite the fugitive’s home, about 40 personnels from the Royal Malaysian Police—such as the Special Actions Unit (Pasukan Gerakan Khas A-Detachment; UTK) and Special Branch members—broke through two doors and rushed into the house, were Mas Selamat refused to come out and surrender when ordered by the police. Mas Selamat resided in the house's refurbished basement, while his landlord, known only as "Johar", and Johar's wife and two children, resided in the upper portions of the house. Prior to his arrest, Mas Selamat had limited contact with outsiders, even avoiding prayers at the local surau, but had been witnessed tending to the compound's garden. Villagers in Kampung Tawakal expressed shock of Mas Selamat's presence after his identity was made known to the public.

Mas Selamat was transferred back to Singapore for indefinite detention under the Internal Security Act on 24 September 2010.

On 8 May 2009, the media in Singapore reported that Mas Selamat had been captured by Malaysian authorities in Johor, Malaysia. This report was later confirmed by both the Singapore and Malaysian governments, with the date of capture given as 1 April 2009. Malaysian Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed that Mas Selamat is being held under the Internal Security Act, saying that he was "planning something, which allowed us to arrest him". Hishammuddin declined to give details, since the case is sensitive as it involves intelligence agencies of Singapore, Indonesia as well as Malaysia. Inspector-General of Malaysian Police Musa Hassan said that the arrest was made possible as the involved parties had been sharing intelligence reports since his escape.

At 4:05 pm on Wednesday, 27 February 2008, the JI leader escaped from the Internal Security Department's Whitley Road Detention Centre where he was being detained. His family were visiting him at the time, and he was being led to a room to meet them when he asked to go to the toilet. He then fled. A massive manhunt comprising personnel from the Singapore Police Force, the Gurkha Contingent, the Singapore Armed Forces, the Police Tactical Unit and the Police National Service Key Installation Protection Unit were deployed in the vicinity of the area immediately after the escape. They were later aided by members of the Singapore Guards and the Singapore Armed Forces Military Police Command, before the operation was wound down over 17 hours later without success in locating the fugitive, who was believed to be unarmed.

Wanted posters of Mas Selamat were put up in shopping centers, buses, train stations, and schools islandwide to appeal for the public to inform police should they spot him, and leaflets given out by volunteers to members of the public. The three telecommunications companies in Singapore sent out Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages starting on 1 March 2008 to all 5.5 million subscribers with Mas Selamat's photograph, as well as email messages to SingNet Internet users. The MMS read, "Please call 999 immediately if you see Mas Selamat bin Kastari. He is short (1.58m tall) and limps on his left leg. Thank you." Lockdowns at border and immigration checkpoints also resulted in much longer queues for people leaving Singapore.

On 21 July 2008, a cash reward of one million dollars was offered for information leading to the apprehension of Mas Selamat. The million dollar reward was put up by two private individuals who had approached the Home Affairs Ministry, wishing to remain anonymous.

On 2 March 2008, it was announced that an independent Committee of Inquiry, chaired by former judge Goh Joon Seng, would be set up to find out how the escape occurred.

On 21 April 2008, the only findings of the Committee of Inquiry were released in a Parliament of Singapore session. It was announced that he escaped through an unsecured bathroom window. The Committee attributed the escape to three critical factors – first, the lack of grilles where the window was located; second, Mas Selamat being allowed to close the toilet door on the guards, thus avoiding detection during his escape and third, a physical weakness at the perimeter fencing outside the visitation centre.

On 7 August 2008, a man 'limping like' Mas Selamat was arrested by Indonesian police at Buluh Tumbang Airport in Tanjung Pandan, Belitung. The man claimed to be an educational book salesman and not the fugitive in question. The man was later released.

In January 2006, Mas Selamat was arrested by Indonesian anti-terror squads in Java and deported to Singapore. He was suspected of plotting to bomb Singapore Changi Airport in January 2002, and, according to the Singapore Police Force, he had initially planned to do so by crashing a plane into the airport. However, Mas Selamat has never been formally charged with any terrorism-related offences; instead, he was detained under the country's Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial.

On 20 January 2006, he was arrested again for using a fake identity card in Java, where he was visiting his son who was said to be studying at a religious school there. Singapore requested Mas Selamat's extradition and he was handed over to Singapore on 3 February 2006, where he was detained in Singapore under the Internal Security Act without trial. The Malaysian intelligence authorities also wanted to question Mas Selamat who had made frequent visits to Johor before fleeing to Indonesia.

Mas Selamat had earlier been arrested in February 2003 in the island of Bintan, Indonesia, to assist Indonesian police in their investigations of several bombings in Indonesia in 2001 and 2002. Mas Selamat had changed his identity, assuming the name of Edi Heriyanto and obtained an Indonesian passport. Found in his possession was literature on making bombs and the virtue of suicide. He was jailed for 18 months in 2003 for immigration offences. He was, however, not handed over to Singapore upon his release, since Indonesia and Singapore do not yet have an extradition treaty. During this period of imprisonment, he broke his left leg in a botched attempt to escape when he jumped from a high floor, resulting in him walking with a permanent limp.

According to Singapore intelligence authorities, Mas Selamat has met Hambali, the leader of JI, and discussed various terror plots including hijacking a plane from Bangkok and crashing it into Singapore Changi Airport. He escaped from Singapore in 2001 before authorities conducted a massive operation to arrest 13 suspected JI members in December 2001.

Mas Selamat is believed to have begun his involvement with Jemaah Islamiah (JI) in the 1990s upon joining Darul Islam, a precursor movement to the JI group. By 1992, he had joined the Singapore JI cell, and was sent to Afghanistan for training a year later. In 1998, he studied the Taliban system of government and returned home 'deeply impressed'.

Mas Selamat Kastari (born 23 January 1961), an Indonesian-born Singaporean, was for more than a year Singapore's most-wanted fugitive after escaping from detention on 27 February 2008. The search for him has been described as the largest manhunt ever launched in Singapore. He was eventually recaptured in Skudai, Malaysia, on 1 April 2009, over a year after his escape, and has since been returned to Singapore. His escape was found to be one of the events in Singapore's history that Singaporeans were most aware of, with 95% being aware of it.

Born in 1961 in Kendal, Central Java, in Indonesia, Mas Selamat grew up in Kaki Bukit in Singapore leading a typical childhood kampung life. He attended the Kaki Bukit Primary School, and was known simply as "Selamat" to his neighbors. In the early 1980s, Mas Selamat moved to a flat in Bedok Reservoir where he married and had five children.