27-year-old Bangladeshi national jailed in Singapore for financing Syrian militant groups
SINGAPORE: A Bangladeshi construction worker in Singapore was on Monday sentenced to two years and eight months in jail for funding militant groups in Syria, making multiple social media accounts to publish pro-jihadist posts and buying knives to be "ready for jihad".
Ahmed Faysal, 27, pleaded guilty to five charges under the Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act, with another 10 charges taken into consideration.
This is the largest number of charges an offender has ever faced under the Act, the Channel News Asia reported, citing the prosecutor.
Faysal said he did not intend to use the weapons in Singapore, as he wanted to stay out of trouble and continue supporting his family in Bangladesh by working in the city-state.
However, Faysal said that he would use the knives only in Bangladesh, if Hindus attacked Muslims and the government took no action against the perpetrators, according to the report.
He had not conceived any specific plans at the time of his arrest.
Between February and October 2020, Faysal made 15 fund transfers totalling about 892 Singapore dollars to (SGD) "fund-raising campaigns" that he knew would go to the terrorist entity Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS).
Faysal, who earned between SGD 900 and SGD 1,200 a month, initially supported the Islamic State's goals to establish an Islamic caliphate in Syria, first learning about jihad and the Syrian civil war on Facebook.
He used multiple Facebook accounts with temporary email addresses and phone numbers and posted about jihad.
He considered going to Syria to help the Islamic State destroy the Syrian government, but did not do so as he did not have the money to travel to Syria and needed to support his family back in Bangladesh.
Faysal became disillusioned with the Islamic State in mid-2019 after watching videos of Muslim scholars condemning the group for killing innocent civilians in their process of achieving an Islamic caliphate.
The Singapore court heard that Faysal began supporting HTS instead, as he thought HTS was "less brutal" in achieving its goals.
HTS was another militant group fighting to establish an Islamic caliphate in Syria and to overthrow the Assad regime, the court heard.
HTS currently controls the last rebel-held enclave of Idlib, a city in northwestern Syria, the prosecution said.
When Faysal was told that HTS has detained, tortured and executed civilians, he said he nonetheless supported HTS in its fight against the Syrian government, which he believes to be oppressing Syrian Muslims.
HTS was added to the United Nations Security Council's ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaida List as a terrorist entity in June 2018, and is considered a terrorist entity under Singapore's Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act.
In mid-2019, Faysal began following a Facebook page of a doctor who claimed to have Bangladeshi roots and who was purportedly working in a hospital in Idlib, Syria.
The doctor published posts on his page supporting the violent overthrowing of the Syrian government and voicing his support for HTS members.
He also live-streamed videos to appeal for money in a fund-raising campaign purportedly for a hospital that treated injured HTS soldiers.
Influenced by this content, Faysal made 15 transfers totalling SGD 891.
98 while believing the money would benefit a terrorist entity.
The prosecution sought 34 months' jail, saying terrorism financing will be met with lengthy imprisonment terms.
Terrorism is a clear and present threat to Singapore's security, said the prosecutors, and sentencing Faysal to a deterrent sentence would mean that Singapore "continues to fulfil her duty as a member of the global community and its unending fight against terrorism".
"This is an onerous duty which cannot be taken lightly and a resoundingly severe sentence imposed on offenders who commit terrorism financing offences serves to advance both Singapore's public interests and deter like-minded persons from similar reproachable conduct," the Channel quoted the prosecutors as saying.