Shame on the BEST PAID and most LEEGALLY CORRUPT ministers in the world!
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>He's locked up in US while family suffers in S'pore
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Singaporean, held for trying to buy weapons for Tamil Tigers, feels 'helpless' </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By K.C. Vijayan
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For the last two years, home for Haniffa Osman, 56, has been a cell in Wicomico County Detention Centre in Baltimore in eastern United States.
Charged with conspiring with three others to export arms to a terror group and abetting money-laundering, he pleaded guilty.
He has been on remand since 2006 and will be sentenced this month. He is looking at up to 15 years in jail.
For the time being, since his former cellmate's recent release, he has the space in his 3m-by-5m cell to himself. He can choose to use the top or bottom bunk of the double-decker bed.
Burgers, noodles, chicken, fish and meat balls appear on the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but because he is Muslim, he skips the non-halal items and is left with cabbage, beans, noodles and fish. His usual fallback if hungry: bread.
It is his first time in jail. Going by his description of his life there, during a phone interview with The Sunday Times, the facility in which he is being held could be given three stars.
He might even be materially better off than his family here. While he is assured of three square meals a day and a roof over his head, his wife is struggling to make ends meet for herself and their 14-year-old son. The family could lose their home, a three-room Telok Blangah flat.
Haniffa also has a 24-year-old daughter, whose wedding two months ago he would dearly love to have attended, he said.
But freedom is one thing he does not have, especially when a 'lockdown' occurs and all prisoners must stay in their cells. Such curfews are usually triggered by fights which break out often among the 500 inmates in the detention centre.
'I can't walk about freely, like to the 24-hour prata shops in Singapore,' he said.
He was arrested by American undercover agents in Guam in 2006 with an agent for the Tamil Tiger rebels, who are fighting a liberation war in Sri Lanka.
At the time, he was inspecting state-of-the-art weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, which he was to procure for the Tigers.
Asked how he, a manager of a cleaning firm here, came to be involved with the Tigers, he said he befriended one of them in 2005. The man was staying at an inn in Little India where Haniffa's company had a cleaning contract.
=> AyeAssDee too bz shadowing CSJ and has orders not to touch FTrash?
At first, he asked Haniffa to buy computer parts and ship them to Sri Lanka. Later, Haniffa was asked to procure arms to 'help the suffering Tamils', for which he would be paid US$50,000 (S$72,000).
The Tigers needed 'agents' to do the purchases on the open market, and he, the holder of a Singapore passport, would not raise suspicions.
He said: 'The contact said I must help them because we both speak Tamil. It was difficult for me to say 'no'.'
The fact that he was in debt from his lavish spending and failed ventures also made it tough to turn down the job.
Since being imprisoned, he has called a business associate at least once a week to check on his family.
This businessman wires cash from Singapore so Haniffa can top up his phone card. The businessman also liaised with Haniffa's US-assigned lawyer, who came here last year to verify that his client - far from being a rich arms baron - was actually of modest means and living in public housing.
The lawyer is drafting his mitigation plea in time for his sentencing.
Haniffa's relationship with his 51-year-old wife has been rocky since the day he called to say he had been jailed. She has been struggling with the mortgage repayments on their flat with what she earns from selling spices in a market.
But they are united in their concern for their teenage son, who smokes, skips school and stays out late.
Haniffa's wife even went to court to file an order to declare the boy beyond parental control, but changed her mind as she did not want him to have a record.
'I am helpless and I feel sad,' said Haniffa. 'When I was there, he would listen to me and I could control him.' [email protected]
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>He's locked up in US while family suffers in S'pore
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Singaporean, held for trying to buy weapons for Tamil Tigers, feels 'helpless' </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By K.C. Vijayan
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
For the last two years, home for Haniffa Osman, 56, has been a cell in Wicomico County Detention Centre in Baltimore in eastern United States.
Charged with conspiring with three others to export arms to a terror group and abetting money-laundering, he pleaded guilty.
He has been on remand since 2006 and will be sentenced this month. He is looking at up to 15 years in jail.
For the time being, since his former cellmate's recent release, he has the space in his 3m-by-5m cell to himself. He can choose to use the top or bottom bunk of the double-decker bed.
Burgers, noodles, chicken, fish and meat balls appear on the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but because he is Muslim, he skips the non-halal items and is left with cabbage, beans, noodles and fish. His usual fallback if hungry: bread.
It is his first time in jail. Going by his description of his life there, during a phone interview with The Sunday Times, the facility in which he is being held could be given three stars.
He might even be materially better off than his family here. While he is assured of three square meals a day and a roof over his head, his wife is struggling to make ends meet for herself and their 14-year-old son. The family could lose their home, a three-room Telok Blangah flat.
Haniffa also has a 24-year-old daughter, whose wedding two months ago he would dearly love to have attended, he said.
But freedom is one thing he does not have, especially when a 'lockdown' occurs and all prisoners must stay in their cells. Such curfews are usually triggered by fights which break out often among the 500 inmates in the detention centre.
'I can't walk about freely, like to the 24-hour prata shops in Singapore,' he said.
He was arrested by American undercover agents in Guam in 2006 with an agent for the Tamil Tiger rebels, who are fighting a liberation war in Sri Lanka.
At the time, he was inspecting state-of-the-art weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, which he was to procure for the Tigers.
Asked how he, a manager of a cleaning firm here, came to be involved with the Tigers, he said he befriended one of them in 2005. The man was staying at an inn in Little India where Haniffa's company had a cleaning contract.
=> AyeAssDee too bz shadowing CSJ and has orders not to touch FTrash?
At first, he asked Haniffa to buy computer parts and ship them to Sri Lanka. Later, Haniffa was asked to procure arms to 'help the suffering Tamils', for which he would be paid US$50,000 (S$72,000).
The Tigers needed 'agents' to do the purchases on the open market, and he, the holder of a Singapore passport, would not raise suspicions.
He said: 'The contact said I must help them because we both speak Tamil. It was difficult for me to say 'no'.'
The fact that he was in debt from his lavish spending and failed ventures also made it tough to turn down the job.
Since being imprisoned, he has called a business associate at least once a week to check on his family.
This businessman wires cash from Singapore so Haniffa can top up his phone card. The businessman also liaised with Haniffa's US-assigned lawyer, who came here last year to verify that his client - far from being a rich arms baron - was actually of modest means and living in public housing.
The lawyer is drafting his mitigation plea in time for his sentencing.
Haniffa's relationship with his 51-year-old wife has been rocky since the day he called to say he had been jailed. She has been struggling with the mortgage repayments on their flat with what she earns from selling spices in a market.
But they are united in their concern for their teenage son, who smokes, skips school and stays out late.
Haniffa's wife even went to court to file an order to declare the boy beyond parental control, but changed her mind as she did not want him to have a record.
'I am helpless and I feel sad,' said Haniffa. 'When I was there, he would listen to me and I could control him.' [email protected]
