SUSANNA Liew, the wife of missing Pastor Raymond Koh, today lauded the formation of the Citizen Action Group On Enforced Disappearance (Caged) to find answers to the disappearance of her husband and three other activists.

“It has been 82 days since my husband has been abducted and we have not heard of any substantial leads on him. We still have not received any information and who are his abductors.

“We will stand in solidarity with the coalition until there is closure on these cases,” she said today at Caged’s launch at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

Caged comprise 48 civil society groups that aim to seek international help to pressure Putrajaya into providing answers to the disappearance of Koh and three other activists who went missing in the past six months.

Liew said that she felt for the other families who are also yearning for their loved ones that are missing.

“We need to wake up. It is unprecedented that this can happen in Malaysia. I want to reiterate that kidnapping is a serious crime. It’s not right what had happened to them. They should be given a chance to defend themselves,” she said.

Caged will be seeking the help of the UN committee on ‘Enforced Disappearance’, Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch.

In international human rights law, a forced disappearance or enforced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organisation or by a third party with the authorisation, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organisation.

Coalition spokesman Thomas Fann said Caged’s objective is to help victims and their families seek justice and redress.

“We want to create awareness of the cases and the issues of ‘Enforced Disappearance’ so that the horrors of their disappearance are exposed and rejected by society,” he said.

The coalition will also be lodging a report to the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) on the police investigation thus far.

Koh was abducted from his vehicle while he was travelling along Jalan SS4B/10, Petaling Jaya on February 13, where CCTV footage showed 15 men in three black SUVs carrying out the abduction in a matter of seconds.

Koh’s car, a silver Honda Accord with the registration number ST 5515D, is still missing.

The others who have gone missing are Pastor Joshua Hilmy and wife Ruth, whose disappearance was first highlighted in an Australian website, xyz.net.au, on February 23, 10 days after Koh’s abduction.

It was reported that the pastor of Malay descent, who was also a former Muslim, went missing on November 30, 2016.

Meanwhile, Amir a social activist who was part of the 1997 Mount Everest Malaysian expedition team, went missing on the night of November 24, 2016, after he reportedly told his eldest daughter that he was going out.

The coalition has also launched a hotline number and email to assist family of victims. The hotline contact: 011-2424 4877 and email: [email protected]. – May 5, 2017.