The man who set off one of Singapore's largest manhunts last year had eluded capture and escaped detention several times.

And throughout, he always stayed one step ahead of the authorities, displaying the kind of cunning that suggested why he had been chosen in 1999 by alleged Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror network operations chief Hambali to take over the Singapore cell from Ibrahim Maidin, who was later detained.

In January 2002, when the Singapore authorities discovered plans by the JI to stage a series of terror attacks on local shores and swooped in on JI members here, Mas Selamat somehow got wind of it and fled the country.

Not, however, before taking time to damage a computer hard disk that contained potentially incriminating evidence, so that police could not get more information when they raided his home.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.

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