Singapore jails two Bangladeshis for 'financing terrorism'

A combination of mugshots of Bangladeshi construction and marine industry workers - Islam Shariful (top L-R), Mamun Leakot Ali, Md Jabath Kysar Haje Norul Islam Sowdagar, Miah Rubel, Rahman Mizanur (bottom L-R), Sohag Ibrahim, Sohel Hawlader Ismail Hawlader and Zzaman Daulat - who were part of a radicalised group called the Islamic State in Bangladesh (ISB) detained in April under the Internal Security Act in Singapore in this handout photo released May 3, 2016. Ministry of Home Affairs/Handout via REUTERS

Thomson Reuters

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore court jailed two Bangladeshis for financing terrorism on Tuesday after detaining them in April on suspicion of planning attacks in their home country.

Mamun Leakot Ali, 29 and Zzaman Daulat, 34, were the last to be sentenced of six Bangladeshis who were charged with contributing money for attacks in Bangladesh. The other four were jailed for between two and five years.

Mamun, who contributed S$800 ($600) towards financing militant activities, was jailed for two and a half years while Zzaman, who contributed S$200, got two years. The two pleaded guilty after earlier denying the charges.

The sentences were part of the city-state's first ever case of "financing terrorism" and there were no indications the men had planned to carry out attacks in Singapore.

Bangladesh, a deeply religious but mostly moderate Muslim-majority country of 160 million people, has faced a series of militant attacks over the past year, the most serious on July 1 when gunmen stormed a cafe in the capital, Dhaka, and killed 20 people, most of them foreigners.

($1 = S$1.36)

(Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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