| By Salim Osman, Indonesia Correspondent | ||
 |  | Improvised flotation devices such as rubber tyres or plastic tubes tied together are often used by illegal immigrants trying to slip into Singapore undetetced. -- ST FILE PHOTO |
But he was also a determined survivor, added Mohammad Hassan Saynudin, who is serving time here for killing a Christian school teacher and planning terrorist attacks in Indonesia.
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Asked about Mas Selamat's capture in Johor, he said that while his fellow JI member had no relatives there, he had a few 'good friends' whom he could rely on for help.
'Mas Selamat is a determined survivor. He must have got help from one or two friends he could trust,' said Hassan, who spoke to The Sunday Times by phone on Saturday.
'All our 'ikhwan' in Singapore have been rounded up by the authorities. And very few are left in Johor,' he added, using the Arabic term for 'brothers' to refer to other JI members.
Mas Selamat was born in Indonesia but migrated to Singapore in his youth. Both he and Hassan were in Johor at one time when they were trying to elude capture in 2002.
Hassan said he was initially sceptical when he learnt that his friend had escaped from the Whitley Detention Centre in February last year. As for his recapture, he said : 'It's amazing that this guy was able to escape and lived in Johor for a year without being detected. 'It speaks so much about the man's survival skills.'
When told that the fugitive had swum across the Johor Strait with the aid of an improvised flotation device, he remarked: 'Mas Selamat is a bad swimmer. 'I know this because we went swimming together while on the run in Bali. He can't swim more than 1km of the strait without some help.'
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