THE Court of Appeal has ordered the government to produce the special task force report into the disappearance of Perlis activist Amri Che Mat, Free Malaysia Today reports.

Justice Kamaludin Md Said, who chaired a three-member bench comprising judges Azizul Azmi Adnan and Hashim Hamzah, reportedly said they needed to examine the document and decide if contents pose risk to national security.

Kamaludin made the order during the government’s appeal against a High Court ruling granting a limited release of the report to Amri’s wife, Norhayati Ariffin.

He reportedly cited a past Federal Court decision that the courts are entitled to view a classified document.

Justice Azizul also said the bench could read the report within the privacy of their chambers.

Senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly, who appeared for the government, said the report will only be made available to the judges, as per the Official Secrets Act 1972.

The court fixed Wednesday for case management.

On May 9, High Court judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh allowed Norhayati’s application for limited access to the report, needed for separate legal action against the police and government over Amri’s enforced disappearance on November 24, 2016.

The government subsequently appealed.

On April 3, 2019, a public inquiry by Suhakam concluded that Amri and pastor Raymond Koh, who vanished in 2016 and 2017, respectively, were victims of enforced disappearance.

The three-member panel unanimously concluded that the perpetrators were members of the Special Branch from police headquarters Bukit Aman in Kuala Lumpur.

Koh’s family also has an ongoing civil court suit against the police and government over the pastor’s enforced disappearance. – December 11, 2023.