19-year-old detained for planning to join ISIS had planned to kill President and PM Lee
SINGAPORE - The 19-year-old student detained last month for planning to join terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) intended to kill President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong if he could not leave Singapore for Syria, Mr
His comments, in a speech at the opening of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security summit, come two days after the Ministry of Home Affairs announced it had detained M Arifil Azim Putra Norja’i, and arrested another 17-year-old student who had been radicalised for further investigations.
The ministry had said Arifil gave considerable thought to how he would attack key facilities and assassinate government leaders, but did not go into details.
On Friday, Mr Lee said of his case: "This is why Singapore takes terrorism, and in particular ISIS, very, very seriously. The threat is no longer over there, it is over here."
Mr Lee also announced that Singapore’s deployment of a KC-135 tanker refueling aircraft to the Middle East started on Friday. The tanker is part of Singapore’s participation in the international coalition against ISIS.
