DIT was early morning on September 7, three years ago. Three men stood near a telephone booth, next to the Coffee Bean inside the Nexus Lounge at Singapore’s Changi Airport. They were chatting away in the air-conditioned surroundings.

The first man was thin with wavy hair. He was Munir, a human rights activist, who at the time was 39 years old. Next to him was a tall and well-built man wearing glasses. In front of them was a man with straight,