Singapore detains youngest person to date for terrorism-related acts under ISA

A self-radicalised, 15-year-old Singaporean has been issued an order of detention (OD), the youngest individual dealt with to date under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for terrorism-related activities in the city-state.

According to the republic’s Internal Security Department (ISD), youth was a Secondary Three student at the time of his arrest under ISA in November 2022. He was issued the OD in December 2022. 

"Investigations found that he was self-radicalised by online terrorist propaganda, and supportive of al Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS)," the department said in a statement on the Ministry of Home Affairs website yesterday.

ISD said the youth had considered conducting attacks in Singapore, and harboured the desire to establish an Islamic caliphate through violent means.
 
"He is the youngest individual to date dealt with under the ISA for terrorism-related activities," it added.

A 16-year-old Singaporean male who was detained under the ISA in December 2020 was previously the youngest to be dealt with under the law.

He was inspired by far-right extremist ideologies and had planned to conduct knife attacks against Muslims at two mosques in Singapore, it said.

ISD said among others that the 15-year-old would undergo intensive religious counselling with two religious counsellors from the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG) to address the religious misconceptions leading to his support for armed violence and terrorist groups such as al Qaeda.

Separately, a 16-year-old Singaporean male, a Secondary Four student, was issued with a restriction order (RO) under the ISA in January 2023. 

ISD said investigations found that the youth had been self-radicalised by online IS propaganda, and believed in the use of armed violence to establish an Islamic caliphate.

The youth joined multiple IS-themed servers on online gaming platform Roblox, where the virtual game settings replicated physical IS conflict zones such as those in Syria and Marawi city in southern Philippines. 

"Extremist and terrorist groups are known to target youths for radicalisation and recruitment online as they may be more impressionable and easily influenced in their search for a sense of identity, purpose and belonging. 

"Terrorist groups have also misused online gaming platforms, for example, by disseminating their ideological beliefs through video games, using in-game communication features to recruit vulnerable gamers, and appropriating gaming culture to increase their reach to younger target audiences," said the ISD.

The two youths were online contacts of an 18-year-old Singaporean who was detained under the ISA in December 2022.

Since 2015, ISD said it had dealt with 11 self-radicalised Singaporean youths aged 20 or below under the ISA, all of whom were radicalised online.