Singaporean Detainee's Family Denies Claims of IS Support

The family of an Australia-based Singaporean detained in the city-state for allegedly glorifying the Islamic State (IS) group denied the Singapore government's claims on Tuesday.

In a statement, the family of Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff said it was "troubled" that information selectively released by Singapore's interior ministry was used to justify his arrest under a law which allows for detention without trial.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said last week that Zulfikar, a Muslim activist living in Melbourne, was detained on July 1 for actively supporting IS through Facebook posts.

It described him as a threat to national security who advocated violence to establish an Islamic regime in Singapore.

"Zulfikar has made use of social media to propagate and spread his radical messages," the ministry said on July 29 in announcing his arrest.

His posts led to the radicalization of two other Singaporeans, it said.

Zulfikar's family said the allegations that he supported IS were based on selected Facebook postings in 2014.

The family said he later changed his mind about the group following reports of IS militants beheading their captives.

"He had been against their violent nature and ideology," said the statement.

Zulfikar also "had never encouraged or promoted others" to join IS.

It also said that the ministry's claim that Zulfikar had been a member of Hizbut-Tahrir, a hardline organization in Australia, were "untrue and have no basis at all."

The family had returned to Singapore for the Eid holidays, Zulfikar's wife Shireen Abdul Samad told AFP.

She said they encountered no problems in previous visits.