[ad_1]
SINGAPORE – A former Singaporean arrested under the Internal Security Act for terrorism-related activities was jailed for six weeks on Thursday (October 22) for disobeying the Passport Law.
Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff had falsely stated that he had not obtained citizenship of another country when renewing his Singapore passport in 2013.
The 49-year-old, who was arrested for actively promoting terrorism and glorifying the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror group, had acquired Australian citizenship despite having Singapore citizenship.
Dual citizenship is not allowed in Singapore, and Zulfikar has since renounced his Singapore citizenship.
Zulfikar pleaded guilty to one count under the Passport Law on Thursday.
The court heard that Zulfikar, who lived in Australia for 14 years, had applied for Australian citizenship in 2011 with her 15-year-old son so that her son could evade his national service obligations.
Zulfikar “did not take any action to renounce” his Singapore citizenship when his application was successful, said the Prosecution Officer of the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), Assistant Superintendent (ASP) Ganeshvaran.
To prevent local authorities from discovering his dual citizenship, Zulfikar would use different passports to travel to Singapore.
For example, he would depart Australia for Malaysia on his Australian passport and then travel to Singapore on his Singapore passport, the prosecutor said.
He successfully entered Singapore 15 times without being detected, added ASP Ganeshvaran.
When it came to renewing his Singapore passport in 2013, he falsely stated that “he had not acquired the citizenship of another country”.
Zulfikar was arrested by the Department of Homeland Security when he returned to Singapore in July 2016.
He had made many posts on Facebook promoting the ISIS terror group and its violent actions.
The Interior Ministry said Zulfikar’s actions contributed to the radicalization of at least two Singaporeans.
In mitigation, his defense attorney, Lock Zhi Yong, said Zulfikar pleaded guilty at the earliest available opportunity and is sorry.
He also suffered a “considerable loss of liberty” for having been detained under the Internal Security Act for more than four years.
Lock said Zulfikar hopes to reunite with his wife and six children, ages 10 to 24, in Australia.
However, the prosecutor said that Zulfikar had “deliberately planned his route of travel” to avoid detection by authorities.
His sentence has been retroactive to the date of his preventive detention on October 8 of this year.
[ad_2]
