A Singapore court sentenced a Bangladeshi construction worker to two years and eight months in jail on charges of financing Syria-based terrorist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), The Straits Times reports.
The convict is Ahmed Faysal, 27, who started working as a construction worker in Singapore in 2017 and became radicalised the following year, according to a statement of the country’s home ministry.
Ahmed Faysal pleaded guilty to five charges under the Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act on Monday.
He made 15 fund transfers through various online platforms to Medical Aid Syria (MAS) and Ramadan 2020 Emergency Homes for Syria.
The convict did so despite having reasonable grounds to believe that the monies would, in part, benefit HTS, according to The Straits Times report.
According the statement of Singapore’s MHA, Ahmed Faysal initially supported militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and had even considered going to Syria to help it establish an Islamic caliphate. But he lacked the financial means to travel there.
Deputy public prosecutors Cheng Yuxi and Esther Wong said in court documents that Ahmed Faysal became disillusioned with ISIS in mid-2019 after watching videos of Muslim scholars condemning the group for killing innocent civilians in the process of achieving an Islamic caliphate.
“He began supporting HTS instead, on his understanding that HTS was less brutal than ISIS in achieving its goals,” they added.
At around the same time, Ahmed also started following the Facebook page of Shajul Islam, a physician with Bangladeshi roots said to have worked in a hospital in Idlib, Syria, which was run by MAS.
The court heard that he had published posts supporting the overthrowing of the Syrian government by violent means and voiced his support for HTS members in achieving that objective.
Shajul had live-streamed videos on his Facebook page to appeal for monies as part of a fundraising campaign for the hospital run by MAS.
He also publicised that the hospital treated injured HTS soldiers.
Ahmed was then influenced by the contents of Shajul’s Facebook page to send money to MAS.
