16YO Who Planned to Attack Mosques Will Have a Lawyer & a Hearing Under ISA

Nobody really believed it when the news first came out.

It’s was, after all, not everyday that you hear of a serious terror attack on local shores…

All the more one that’s planned by a mere 16-year-old boy.

Yet, as distorted as it may be, it appears to be the truth.

And now, the boy in question will have to face dire consequences.

Though whether they are as dire as they should be, is another question altogether.

16YO Who Planned to Attack Mosques Will Have a Lawyer & a Hearing Under ISA

The Singaporean teenager who was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) will be required to attain the services of a lawyer and sit out a hearing – in a bid to set out his position.

The statement was conveyed by Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Thursday (28 January 2021).

“He will get a hearing within the rubric of the Internal Security Act and he would have a lawyer, and his position will be put across,” said Mr Shanmugam. “His parents are fully involved.”

In addition to the judge, the Law and Home Affairs Minister will also look into it personally.

According to Mr Shanmugan, the boy’s age was not deemed as a relevant factor in his arrest.

“Because I think we agree that he is capable of doing harm, and until he is rehabilitated, if we leave him out, and if he carries out what he intends to do, I think we will all be very sorry,” he added.

However, it will serve to play a part in how the boy’s rehabilitation process will play out.

“I think given his age, there must be considerable hope that he can be rehabilitated,” he said.

“But I don’t think there is any doubt in ISD’s mind that he ought to be detained for a period.”

Not Tried In Court

According to The Straits Times, the teen will undergo psychological counselling for his troubling beliefs.

Both a mentor and a Christian religious counsellor will be assigned to correct his radical ideology.

Social support will also be given to the youth and his family.

This approach is better for their rehabilitation than imprisonment, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam said.

“There’s a reasonable expectation, that he, like many of the other boys, would eventually understand what their religion is about, and can actually get rehabilitated,” he said.

The Minister also reiterated why the teen will not be tried in court, indicating the glaring point that he has yet to do anything.

“In many countries, that is part of the issue. You got to wait for them to do something, and often, that’s too late, and I think our people support the approach where we intervene very early,” said Mr Shanmugam.

“Second, apart from the question of what he has done, you put him up on the stand, he talks about how he was influenced by Tarrant, his manifesto, what he has against Muslims, do you think that is positive for our interracial confidence?

“You will get reactions from the Muslim community. You will get other people from the Christian community who listen to this, and maybe some may think of this boy as being victimised.

“You run the risk of a Christian-Muslim divide, or deepening the divide.”

Bombs

The teen had chosen Assyafaah Mosque in Sembawang and Yusof Ishak Mosque in Woodlands as his targets, because they were near his home.

He conducted online reconnaissance and research using Google Maps and Street View on both mosques to prepare for the attacks.

Intending to emulate his inspiration, White supremacist Brenton Tarrant, the boy had intended to drive between the two attack sites.

To circumvent the lack of a driving license, he watched online driving tutorials and planned to rent a BlueSG car, and intended to use his father’s stolen credit card to complete the transaction.

He also purchased a tactical vest from an online platform and intended to adorn the vest with right-wing extremist symbols, just like Tarrant did.

He planned to modify the vest so he could strap on his phone to livestream the attack as well.

Initially, the 16-year-old intended to use a rifle for the attacks, similar to the one used by Tarrant.

He found a prospective seller through a private chat platform, but ultimately decided against it because he suspected it was a scam.

While he persisted in his search for firearms, he eventually gave up after realising how difficult it would be to acquire them in Singapore, with its strict gun-control laws.

He also explored the idea of making a triacetone triperoxide bomb, copying Tarrant’s plan of setting fire to the mosques with gasoline. But he abandoned this idea as well, due to logistical and personal safety concerns.

In the end, the youth decided on a machete as his attack weapon.

He watched YouTube videos on how to attack people with a knife, and was confident that he would be able to hit the arteries of his targets by randomly slashing at the neck and chest areas.

When he was arrested, he had already found his preferred machete, but hadn’t purchased it yet.

The attacks were scheduled for 15 March 2021 – the second anniversary of the 2019 attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Beliefs

The youth started planning his violent assault after a terror attack on 29 Oct last year in Nice, France, where a terrorist beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church.

According to ISD, this attack convinced the boy that he needed to defend Christians by pre-emptively attacking Muslims here.

At just 16 years old, the youth is the youngest person so far to be dealt with under the ISA for terrorism-related activities.

The teen was still in secondary school when he was detained.

Thus far, his identity has not been revealed.

Neither his name nor school has been released by the Internal Security Department (ISD) because of his age.

The only known fact about his identity at the moment is that he’s a Protestant Christian of Indian ethnicity.

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Featured Image: ISD