THE public inquiry into the disappearance of pastor Raymond Koh will resume, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) announced today.

The probe into the pastor’s disappearance was stopped in its tracks after police informed the inquiry panel that they had charged part-time Uber driver Lam Chang Nam with Koh’s kidnapping.

This morning, however, Suhakam commissioner Mah Weng Kwai, who heads the inquiry, said the commissioners have decided to continue the inquiry after deliberating on the matter. 

“The subject matter of the court case of Lam Chang Nam is not the same as the subject matter of this inquiry.”

In February, police directed the inquiry panel to Section 12 (3) of the Suhakam Act 1999, which states that during an inquiry into the infringement of the human rights of a person, if the allegation becomes the subject matter of any proceeding in any court, the commission shall immediately cease to do the inquiry.

Koh’s family lawyer Gurdial Singh Nijar said then the inquiry should only be stopped if the subject matter was the same (in both the inquiry and court proceedings).

“You cannot have the court and the inquiry deciding this issue. It has to be one or the other that is deciding the issue.”

He said the issue (Lam’s case) is within the court and has nothing to do with whether the state was complicit or not (in Koh’s disappearance).

“If this person (Lam) is found guilty, was there any involvement by the state?”

The Suhakam panel aims to determine whether Koh’s abduction, as well as the disappearance of three others in 2016 – social activist Amri Che Mat and Pastor Joshua Hilmi and wife, Ruth – are enforced disappearances conducted by the state.

Koh was abducted in Petaling Jaya on February 13 last year by about 15 men in three black SUVs.

The abduction was caught on closed-circuit television cameras and has been described as a well-coordinated operation. – May 16, 2018.