Singapore jailed an ex-IT engineer to jail after finding that he had transferred funds to a radical preacher in 2016. The man, whose full name is Ahmed Hussein Abdul Kadir Sheik Uduman, is the first Singaporean to be convicted and sentenced under the Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act.
A Singapore court established that Ahmed Hussein donated S$1,059 in 2016 to a radical preacher in Jamaica. He followed it up with another payment of US$62 in September that year to the fundamentalist preacher, identified as Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal.
Singapore's Internal Security Department arrested Hussein in July 2018. The prosecution said Hussein, who had been radicalised by the preacher, was planning to move to Syria and join the ranks of the Islamic State warriors engaged in jihad. He was an avid follower of the Sheikh, who exhorted people to wage a battle for the Caliphate, through a popular YouTube channel. The radical preacher had been convicted of terror offences in the UK in 2003 and deported to Jamaica.
The Singapore court concluded that Hussein knew the money he sent to the preacher would be used for terrorism. The criminal involvement was corroborated by the fact that Hussein tried to cover his tracks and deleted all electronic evidence of the transaction.
"Terrorism, whether in the form of acts or ideals, is globally condemned, and it is in the public interest of Singapore to ensure terrorism financing is dealt with firmly," Deputy Public Prosecutor Chong Yonghui said, according to The New Paper.
"It cannot be overstated that the funding of terrorist propaganda which preaches violent religious ideology must be clamped down upon unequivocally ... In so doing, Singapore continues to fulfil her duty as a member of the global community in the unending fight against terrorism," he added.
