POLICE were not aware of any religious preaching done by pastor Joshua Hilmy and his wife, Ruth, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) public inquiry into the couple’s disappearance heard today.

“I’m not sure (of any preaching activities done by the couple),” assistant superintendent Shafiee Marsidi, the inquiry’s 11th witness, told the panel at the Suhakam headquarters.

“I only had information that he was a Muslim who converted to Christianity, and that he is a pastor.”

He was replying to commissioner Hishamuddin Yunus’ question on whether he knew that Joshua was a convert.

He said Joshua was investigated for sedition after a police report was lodged against him in Rembau, Negri Sembilan, in 2014.

The case was later classified as “no further action”, he said.

Shafiee was the officer in charge at the Sg Way police station, where Joshua’s friend, Peter Pormanan, lodged missing person’s reports on the couple in March 2017. He was based at the station from January 1 to December that year.

He said he did not know much about the couple when Hishamuddin asked whether he knew anything about Ruth.

“I was not aware that she is Indonesian.”

The commissioner asked Shafiee whether during the course of the investigation, police uncovered details on the couple’s activities.

“Do you know what activities they were doing?”

Shafie said he was focused on the probe in his one year at the Sg Way station.

Hishamuddin asked whether it ever occurred to Shafiee that the couple’s disappearance may have something to do with their activities.

The witness said he was unaware of their activities, including claims that they conducted baptisms and shared photos of the ceremonies on Facebook.

Little is known about Joshua and Ruth, who are suspected of being victims of enforced disappearance. In 2018, two years after they went missing, Ruth’s siblings lodged a missing person’s report. Her family are from the fishing village of Nambiki in northern Sumatra.

International human rights laws define enforced disappearance as 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.

The Suhakam panel is chaired by Hishamuddin, assisted by commissioners Jerald Joseph and Madeline Berma. – September 2, 2020.