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JAKARTA, INDONESIA - FUGITIVE terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari would not be deported to Singapore if he is arrested in Indonesia, according to a Foreign Ministry official here.
He said that Singapore would have to wait 'a long time' until an extradition treaty was ratified by the two countries to gain custody of Mas Selamat, according to front-page reports in the Indo Pos daily and the Sinar Harapan evening newspaper on Saturday.
Both dailies quoted the Foreign Ministry's director of political, security and territorial treaties, Mr Arif Havas Oegroseno, as saying that, based on international law, the only legal way for Mas Selamat to be deported is through an extradition treaty.
'Since the extradition treaty has yet to be ratified, Kastari cannot be returned to Singapore if he were arrested again in Indonesia,' he said.
He also said that the issue of terrorism-related crimes came under the extradition treaty between Indonesia and Singapore.
The treaty, which has not been ratified, has been held up by a Defence Cooperation Agreement.
Mas Selamat fled Singapore in December 2001 and was subsequently arrested twice in Indonesia - in 2003 and 2006 - for violating the country's immigration laws.
He was deported to Singapore in February 2006 despite the fact that there was no extradition treaty between the two countries.
At the time of his deportation, Indonesia's national police deputy spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam said Mas Selamat was escorted to Singapore by Indonesia's elite anti-terror police.
'He violated immigration laws and he is on the Singapore police's wanted list, and therefore we helped to hand him over,' he had said.
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