THE families of missing activists, Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat, today accused the police of having a hand in the disappearance of the men more than two years ago.

They submitted a memorandum to Dr Mahathir Mohamad urging the prime minister to meet them to listen to their side of the story and why they suspect the police of having a hand in the disappearance of both men.

In pushing their argument, civil society group Citizens Against Enforced Disappearances (Caged) reminded the prime minister of his promise to uphold the rule of law.

“We want the prime minister to listen to what the families have to say, and later verify their allegations,” said Caged spokesman Rama Ramanathan.

He spoke to reporters after handing over a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya, urging Dr Mahathir to meet the families.

“When Pakatan Harapan won GE14, Tun (Dr Mahathir) announced that the new government would uphold the rule of law. We were filled with hope that these mysterious disappearances would finally be resolved, and that truth and justice would prevail,” said Rama.

“The evidence of the CCTV (closed-circuit television camera) footage of Pastor Raymond Koh’s abduction and the way the police conducted themselves later have added to the initial suspicion that the police are behind it.

“It has now been two years since Pastor Raymond Koh was abducted, and more than two years since Amri Che Mat, who was accused of running a Shia school in Perlis, disappeared.”

Another two missing individuals are Joshua Hilmy and his wife Ruth Sitepu.

For the past one year, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) has been conducting a public inquiry into the disappearances of the four missing activists.

Suhakam is seeking to determine if these are cases of enforced disappearance, a term to describe abductions that involve the authorities.  

“We call on YAB Tun to meet the family members of pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat, together with their key advisers, to hear for yourself their side of the story and verify what we have said here,” Rama said.

Based on CCTV recordings, Koh’s abductors are highly trained, he said.

Rama added that the abduction on Amri, Joshua Hilmy and Ruth Sitepu was also conducted in a similar manner which appeared to be a police operation.

“In 2017, while Koh was on his way to office, he was abducted in what appeared like a police operation. The whole operation took less than a minute and was executed in broad daylight in Petaling Jaya.

“After the abduction of pastor Koh, we were alerted to the disappearances of Amri Che Mat and Joshua and Ruth Hilmy. There is evidence that Amri was abducted in an operation very similar to pastor Koh’s abduction.

“We believe these disappearances are related because all four were religious social workers and pastor Koh and Amri were persons of interest to Special Branch.”

Amri was the first reported as missing in Perlis on November 24, 2016. Joshua and his Indonesian wife Ruth disappeared on or around November 30, 2016. 

Rama, however, said CAGED has little information on whether Joshua and Ruth were also monitored by police before their disappearance. – February 13, 2019.