FORMER minister Khairy Jamaluddin has denied he sent any emails to or communicated with missing Pastor Joshua Hilmy, as alleged by a witness during the Suhakam public inquiry today.

In a statement, the former Youth and Sports Minister said he did not know Joshua, his wife Ruth or Selvakumar Peace John Harris, who made the allegations against him.

“It was reported that Selvakumar, who was a witness at the proceedings, alleged I sent emails to Joshua warning him that he should leave the country.

“I would like to state unequivocally that I have never communicated with Joshua either though emails or in any other form of communication.

“The testimony of Selvakumar relating to me is not true,” he said.

Selvakumar is the fifth witness to testify in the Suhakam public inquiry into Joshua and Ruth’s disappearance on November 30, 2016. They were last seen in Petaling Jaya.

He is the owner of the Petaling Jaya house in which Joshua and Ruth stayed.

He alleged he had seen several emails sent to Joshua.

The emails warning Joshua to leave referred to him supposedly converting Muslims to Christianity, according to Selvakumar.

“Joshua called me in December 2015 and said that he had been threatened.

“He (Khairy) sent an email to Joshua telling him to leave.

“I believe this was over a Malay couple he had baptised at the house in January 2015,” Selvakumar told the inquiry.

Suhakam commissioner Hishamuddin Yunus, who is chairing the inquiry, then asked Selvakumar how he knew the email was from Khairy.

He replied that he saw emails in Khairy’s name in May 2016 when Joshua visited him in Sg Bakam, Butterworth.

One email had an official address and several others were from a personal email address.

Little is known about Joshua and Ruth. Two years after their disappearance, Ruth’s siblings lodged a police report in 2018.

Ruth’s family come from the fishing village of Nambiki in northern Sumatra, Indonesia.

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. – March 2, 2020.