Singaporean man jailed for financing terrorism after sending funds to Islamist preacher in first for city state

Ahmed Hussein Abdul Kadir Sheik Uduman was jailed for two-and-a-half years for donating S$1,146 (US$840) to Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal

The prosecution recommended jail time to send ‘a strong message to other like-minded individuals that supporting terrorist propaganda’

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There have been a steady stream of arrests in Singapore related to support for Islamist extremism, and the affluent city state’s leaders have warned it is a prime target for an attack. Photo: Handout

Published: 2:50pm, 18 Oct 2019Updated: 2:52pm, 18 Oct 2019

A Singaporean man became the first of the country’s citizens to be jailed for financing terrorism after he was convicted of sending money to a radical Islamist preacher.

There have been a steady stream of arrests in Singapore related to support for Islamist extremism, and the affluent city state’s leaders have warned it is a prime target for an attack.

Ahmed Hussein Abdul Kadir Sheik Uduman was jailed for two-and-a-half years for donating S$1,146 (US$840) to Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal, an Islamist preacher living in Jamaica, according to court documents.

Hussein contacted Faisal after watching videos on his website and YouTube channels in which he preached support for Islamic State (Isis).

Faisal was jailed for nine years in Britain in 2003 after calling for the murders of non-Muslims and was deported to his native Jamaica after serving four years of his sentence.

Hussein, who was handed a prison term on Thursday, was arrested in July 2018 under Singapore’s Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial for up to two years.

He had been radicalised and “wanted to undertake armed violence in Syria in support of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria,” court documents said.