Jais officer ‘cannot remember much about church raid’

KUALA LUMPUR: A Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) officer claimed that he could not recall many details about the Jais raid on the Damansara Utama Methodist Church on the evening of Aug 3, 2011.

At yesterday’s public inquiry into the kidnapping of Pastor Raymond Koh, Zaaba Zakaria said he could not remember who had led the raid involving 15 Jais enforcement officers and about 20 policemen when panel chairman Datuk Mah Weng Kwai asked him about the leading police officer’s rank.

Zaaba only said the leading policeman was a corporal.

However, he said it was then-Petaling Jaya OCPD Arjunaidi Mohamed that he had met earlier in the afternoon before the raid to request for a police escort, and that he was not asked to produce any backing documents.

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) public inquiry on the disappearances of Koh, Perlis activist Amri Che Mat, Pastor Joshua Hilmi and his wife Ruth Hilmi was into its 10th day of hearing.

The inquiry panel consists of commissioners Mah, Prof Datuk Dr Aishah Bidin and Dr Nik Salida Suhaila Nik Saleh.

Former Bar president Steven Thiru asked Zaaba whether he had revealed details of the complaint – which led to the raid – to the police.

Zaaba said the details of the complaint, including the complainant, were confidential, and questions on the complaint did not arise during his interview with the police.

Bar Council Human Rights Committee co-chairman Andrew Khoo asked Zaaba what the criteria or processes for analysing such cases before taking such action were.

At one point, Zaaba replied that the 2011 case, along with the Sultan of Selangor’s statement issued in October, should not be questioned.

He added that Jais would take action if there were any acts that insulted or brought disrepute to Islam under Section 10 of the Syariah Criminal Enactment (Selangor) 1995.

When asked what security risks Zaaba foresaw when requesting for police escort for the raid, he said the department was worried as this was a rare occurrence.

“And it involved non-Muslims. We didn’t want to give a negative image.

“We expected uncooperative behaviour from the building owner and also security risks,” he said.

He said non-Muslims need not produce their identification cards to Jais officers and that only the police could compel them to show their ICs.

As for the 12 Muslims who were at church during the raid, Zaaba said they were sent for counselling but he did not follow up on their progress.

On the three other disappeared persons, Zaaba said he had no knowledge of them until the commission came to interview him, and that Jais had no files on them.

The hearing resumes next Thursday.