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Restriction order against Singaporean foreign agent Dickson Yeo allowed to lapse
The Internal Security Department (ISD) said in a media release on April 2 that the restriction order (RO) issued against Dickson Yeo, 44, was allowed to lapse upon its expiry in January 2025.
It said: “The threat posed by Yeo as a foreign agent has been effectively neutralised and he no longer requires close supervision under the RO regime.”
Mr Yeo had admitted in a US federal court in July 2020 to acting under the direction of Chinese intelligence officials to obtain sensitive information from American citizens.
Mr Yeo, who was sentenced to 14 months’ jail, had claimed before the US court that he bore no ill will towards the US and that he did not betray Singapore.
He was arrested in the US in November 2019, and was deported to Singapore in December 2020, where he was immediately arrested.
ISD detained Mr Yeo in January 2021 for acting as a paid agent of a foreign state, which the department did not name.
He was subsequently released on a suspension direction in December 2021, and issued with an RO in January 2023.
ISD’s investigations revealed that Mr Yeo’s foreign handlers had first reached out to him in 2015 through an online professional networking site.
They subsequently invited him to an academic symposium overseas, where he was approached to write reports for them.
During a trip to Beijing in 2015, Mr Yeo was recruited by Chinese agents who claimed to represent think-tanks.
He was then studying for a doctorate at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS.
From 2016 to 2019, he carried out various tasks given to him by his foreign handlers, including sourcing information and providing reports on issues of interest, in exchange for money.
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The reports were primarily on global and regional geopolitical issues and developments, including issues related to Singapore.
Additionally, Mr Yeo set up a front company in Singapore and placed job advertisements on social networking sites to identify potential writers and talent-scout individuals for his foreign handlers.
He also applied for sensitive government positions in order to enrich his reports with privileged policy insights and classified information, but failed to get hired.
Separately, in March, the RO issued against self-radicalised Singaporean Asyrani Hussaini, 35, was allowed to lapse.
Mr Asyrani was detained in 2013 after he attempted to engage in armed insurgency in Thailand.
He was released from detention in March 2019 and issued with an RO. ISD said he has made good progress in his rehabilitation and no longer requires close supervision.
Another Singaporean, Mohamed Kazali Salleh, 54, who was convicted of terrorism financing, was released from detention on a suspension direction in February.
Kazali, a businessman and self-radicalised ISIS supporter, gave a Malaysian man more than $1,000 in 2013 and 2014 to facilitate the latter’s journey to Syria to become a fighter for the terror group.
He was first detained under the Internal Security Act in January 2019, then sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison in September 2021 for terrorism financing.
Upon his release from jail, Kazali was detained again as he was still vulnerable to re-radicalisation.
ISD said he has now been released as he has made good progress in his rehabilitation, and no longer poses a security threat requiring preventive detention.
- Christine Tan is a journalist at The Straits Times reporting on crime, justice and social issues in Singapore.
- Andrew Wong is a journalist on The Straits Times’ crime and court desk.
