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A pair of pants and a packet of seven toilet paper rolls were what Mas Selamat may have used to escape from the Whitley Road detention centre where he was held.
And he may have taken all of 49 seconds to climb out of the ventilation window in the urinal cubicle, scale the fence, climb onto the roof of the enclosed staircase and walkway, and jump over the converged perimeter fences, according to a re-enactment requested by the Committee of Inquiry (COI).
The findings were reported in an executive summary released by Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng in Parliament on Monday.
On Feb 27, the COI found Mas Selamat was taken out of his cell for his family visit scheduled for 4pm to 4.30pm at the Family Visitation Block.
Two Gurkha guards escorted him to a locker room to change into civilian clothes, then escorted to a toilet located next to the Family Visit Room to shave and comb his hair as part of the family visit routine at 3.35pm.
But instead of meeting his family, Mas Selamat took the opportunity to squeeze out of a ventilation window that had been ungrilled, and is believed to have used a route 20 metres to the right of the ventilation window where the inner and outer perimeter fences converged with the enclosed staircase and walkway.
Further factors might have also helped to provide him with more time to make his escape. These included:
The two gurkha guards and the detention centre's officer escorting Mas Selamat failed to respond immediately and decisively when they noticed Mas Selamat was taking too long in the urinal cubicle;
- The officer escorting Mas Selamat failed to check if Mas Selamat had changed out of his WRDC-issued attire into his civilian clothes. The COI believes that Mas Selamat must have been wearing at least two layers of clothing when he emerged from the Locker Room; and
- No one was actively monitoring the two CCTV cameras covering the outer and inner perimeter fences at the rear of the Family Visitation Block.
In addition, regular use of the toilet would have provided Mas Selamat with the opportunity to plan his escape.
There was also evidence that he was testing the reaction of the gurkha guards by closing the urinal cubicle door on previous occasions.
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