SINGAPORE (AFP)--A new Singapore detention center should be ready in five years to replace the one from which an alleged Islamic militant made an embarrassing escape, home affairs minister Wong Kan Seng says.
Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the alleged Singapore leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah, or JI, militant group, escaped in February last year from the Whitley Road Detention Center, which holds people held by the Internal Security Department.
Kastari's escape badly dented Singapore's reputation for tight security.
A committee of inquiry found that Kastari, who walks with a limp, escaped through a bathroom window.
The committee made 10 recommendations to fix weaknesses at the detention center and all have been implemented, Wong said in a written reply to a member of parliament. The government released a copy of Wong's answer late Tuesday.
Among its recommendations, the committee urged the building of a new detention facility.
"This recommendation is in progress," Wong said.
The prison service and the Internal Security Department, which handles terrorism and other security threats, began last July to study the building of a new detention center in Changi Prison, the minister said.
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