No open court trial for Singapore youth who planned to attack mosques, minister says
- Making the details of the 16-year-old’s motives public may inflame religious sentiments, Law Minister K. Shanmugam says
- The secondary school student was detained by the Internal Security Department in December last year and is believed to have acted alone
It was also important to intervene early via the ISA instead of waiting for him to carry out an attack before detaining him, said Minister for Home Affairs K. Shanmugam.
Shanmugam was speaking to the media on Thursday after a closed-door meeting with Christian and Muslim leaders at the Yusof Ishak Mosque in Woodlands, which was one of the mosques targeted by the teenager.
The boy, who was detained by the Internal Security Department (ISD) in December last year, is a Protestant Christian of Indian ethnicity and is believed to have acted alone. He was not named because of his age. Shanmugam said that the boy’s age was not taken into consideration on whether or not he should be detained under the ISA.
“I think we agree that he is capable of doing harm. And until he’s rehabilitated, if we leave him out, and if he carries out what he intends to do, I think we’ll all be very sorry,” he said. However, the boy’s age should be taken into account when deciding the rehabilitation process, he said.
