The family of an Australian dual citizen detained without trial in Singapore for two years for allegedly supporting Islamic State say he has been “maliciously and falsely” linked to extremism.
Last week the Singaporean government issued a statement that alleged Zulfikar bin Mohamad Shariff had embarked on the path to radicalisation after reading extremist material and was a supporter of al-Qaida and Isis.
But his family has released a statement criticising the attacks on Shariff. The say Shariff is a loving family man, and that his detention is causing considerable strain on him and his family.
The statement said that while Shariff initially supported the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria – which was reflected in his Facebook posts – he quickly changed his views when reports of violence began to emerge.
One of the grounds put forward publicly for his detention by the Singaporean government were Facebook posts he had allegedly made that showed support for Isis. The family statement said one of the posts with a photo of him and other family members with a Shahada flag was “maliciously and falsely identified as an Isis flag”. Shahada is the Islamic declaration of faith.
“When the first global media reports of violence and beheadings by Isis began in late July 2014 and the agendas of the Isis fighters had seemed to differ from the peaceful perspective, Zulfikar took a different stance,” the statement said.
“He had been against their violent nature and ideology. Anyone who knows him personally would know that he is argumentative but not a violent man, and does not condone violence.”
The Singaporean government has broad anti-terrorism powers than can allow it to detain individuals for lengthy periods of time without trial.
The family’s statement criticised the lack of judicial process around Shariff’s detention.
“To detain him under the ISA [Internal Security Act] for his views, is not fair,” the statement said. “To further accuse him of being an extremist and by extension insinuating terrorism and being a sympathiser of terrorist organisations, is stretching the evidence from his FB page postings.
“Detaining him under the ISA without trial and without having the opportunity to challenge these aspersions in an open court is an injustice. We fear that the detention of Zulfikar also increases the chances of self-incrimination through ‘confessions’ and ‘admissions’.”
They also say that allegations he is a member of radical Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir “are untrue and have no basis at all”.