IMMIGRATION Department assistant deputy director Hamid Momong will today take the stand to resume his testimony at the Suhakam inquiry into the case of missing Pastor Raymond Koh. 

The Suhakam panel has asked Hamid at his last appearance before the panel to produce the Immigration’s suspects list, to determine if the authorities had subjected Koh and his wife, Susanna Liew, to questioning whenever they travelled abroad.

Suhakam Commissioner Mah Weng Kwai had asked Hamid to check if Koh and Liew were on the suspects list of any government agency.

Lawyers representing Koh in the public inquiry had wanted to know if the Immigration Department had stopped and asked for the couple’s statement at the country’s exit points.

Last year, The Malaysian Insight reported that Koh was stopped and questioned nine times, and seven times, when they travelled overseas.

Liew had said that she and her husband were frequently stopped by Immigration personnel and referred to the Special Branch when they wanted to travel abroad.

She said such checks started after Selangor religious authorities in 2011 raided a church where Koh had hosted a dinner attended by Muslims.

The pastor was abducted in Petaling Jaya on February 13 last year by some 15 men in three black SUVs. The abduction was caught on closed-circuit television cameras, and has been described as a professional and well-coordinated job.

Suhakam aims to determine whether Koh, activist Amri Che Mat, who went missing near his home in Padang Behor, as well as Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his wife, Ruth Sitepu, are cases of enforced disappearance sanctioned by the state.

The Malaysian Insight brings you live updates of today’s inquiry hearing:

10.40am: Suhakam officers ask Hamid to produce the suspects’ list (blacklist).

Hamid says he can’t produce the list because it is classified under the Section 16 A of the Official Secrets Act, which means he can’t comment on the list. 

Mah then asks if Koh is on the list.

Hamid says he cannot access the list and even if he could he can’t expose it.

Mah then asks the lawyers and observers if they can look into getting it declassified.

The inquiry ends and will resume on September 7. 

9.20am: Suhakam inquiry resumes with former Petaling Jaya councilolr Peter Chong taking the stand. 

Suhakam officers ask Chong to present his passport to show that he went to Thailand last year to look for Koh. 

Chong says that he renewed his passport in July. 

Comissioner Mah Weng Kwai asks Chong for his old passport. 

Chong says he is unable to find the document as he has moved house.  –  September 3, 2018.