SINGAPORE - An alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant network escaped from his Singapore detention centre by climbing  through a toilet window, Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng admitted on Monday. He also told parliament the guards that had escorted Mas Selamat bin Kastari lost sight of him when he entered a cubicle, and did not react quickly enough.

Singapore prides itself on rigorous anti-terrorist measures but a massive security dragnet has failed to catch Kastari, who escaped two months ago this  Wednesday.

Wong was reporting to parliament on the findings of a committee of inquiry, which he said filed its report on April 10. He has previously said Kastari disappeared on February 27 after being taken from his cell to the family visit room to see his relatives, and then asked to go to the toilet.

"Mas Selamat climbed through the toilet ventilation window and out of the family visitation block. The ventilation window turned out to be not properly secured," Wong said Monday.

He said the inquiry team felt Kastari planned his escape over time and "seized the opportunity presented by the confluence of various factors" on that day.

Singapore's coordinating minister for national security, S. Jayakumar, last week said the escape was a major setback that diminished Singapore's reputation, Kastari, who was born in Singapore in 1961, was accused of plotting to hijack a plane in order to crash it into Singapore's Changi Airport in 2001 but was never charged. He was being held under a law that allows for detention without trial.

He was arrested on the Indonesian island of Bintan near Singapore in 2003 and sentenced by a court there to 18 months in jail. He was later released but arrested again by Indonesian authorities in January 2006 before being handed over to Singapore.

The government said he had fled the city-state after an Internal Security Department operation broke up the local JI network with a series of arrests beginning in December 2001.  

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