FORMER High Court judge Abdul Rahim Uda will lead a six-member special task force to investigate the findings by the Malaysia Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) inquiry into the enforced disappearances of pastor Raymond Koh and activist Amri Che Mat, said Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

“The Suhakam report has created a lot of perception that these forced disappearances were due to Special Branch and it is fair to look into this,” he said in Putrajaya today.

“Beyond that we would also like to find the real truth and hence the cabinet has agreed to convene this task force.”

Along with Rahim, the special task force comprises former police legal affairs chief Mokhtar Mohd Noor, police integrity unit director Zamri Yahya, Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission operations director Muhammad Bukhari Ab Hamid, Attorney-General’s Chambers officer Mohd Sophia Zakaria and Police Commission secretary Mohd Russaini Idrus.

According to Muhyiddin, the composition of the task force was such that the ministry wanted avoid the perception of “police investigating the police… hence we appointed a former judge to head this special task force”.

Moreover, those picked did not have a Special Branch background, the minister said, adding Suhakam was welcome to receive progress reports, it was up to the task force whether to include human rights group as a part of the process.

He said it was not required for the special task force to make its investigation public because it was not a Royal Commission of Inquiry, but ultimately that was a decision for Rahim and his fellow panel members.

Muhyiddin said that it was the task force’s prerogative to decide whether to recall the 40 witnesses who testified at the Suhakam hearings from October 2017 to December 2018.

Meanwhile, Rahim said the panel had not decided on whether to ask former police chiefs Mohamad Fuzi Harun and Khalid Abu Bakar to its hearings.

“That issue has not arise yet. We will go through the Suhakam report, every aspect of it. We will do things fairly,” said Abdul Rahim.

In April, the inquiry unanimously concluded that Koh and Amir were victims of enforced disappearances, while the cabinet decided to form a task force to look into the Suhakam findings last month.

The Suhakam panel said direct and circumstantial evidence proved, on balance of probability, that they were abducted by state agents, namely Special Branch.

It also recommended a task force reopen both cases as enforced disappearances, rather than cases of missing persons.

Amri, who was the founder of the welfare group Perlis Hope, left his home in Kangar at 11.30pm on November 25, 2016, in his SUV.

Koh, who founded Harapan Komuniti, was believed to have been abducted by a group of men on Jalan SS4B/10 in Petaling Jaya on February 13, 2017, while on his way to a friend’s house. – June 26, 2019.