Revive efforts to find missing four, group urges government
KUALA LUMPUR: It has been a year since Pastor Raymond Koh and three others went missing and the Citizen Action Group on Enforced Disappearance (Caged) are calling on the new Government to revive efforts to find them.
The group’s spokesman Thomas Fann said they believed the police were involved in the disappearances of Koh, along with social activist Amri Che Mat, Pastor Joshua Hilmy and Ruth Sitepu.
“We hope the new Government will succeed where the old one failed, which is making sure justice is done for the missing persons and their families,” he said during a vigil in the rain for the missing at Dataran Merdeka here last night.
He went on to name several high ranking police officers whom he claimed were behind the abductions of the four.
Amri’s wife, Norhayati Mohd Ariffin, said she just wanted her husband back.
“I plead with the Prime Minister to look into this case and bring my husband back to us,” she said at the vigil.
Koh’s wife, Susanna Liew, also urged the new Government to bring in new investigators to look into the disappearances.
“They (the missing four) are innocent and do not deserve to be treated in this way. Please let them come home,” she said at the vigil.
The vigil started at 8pm and ended without incident about an hour later. There were no police present.
The case of the missing four are currently the subject of an inquiry by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam).
Koh was abducted from his car in Petaling Jaya while on his way to a friend’s house on Feb 13, 2017.
CCTV footage, believed to be that of the incident, showed at least 15 men and three black SUVs involved in the abduction.
In Amri’s case, a witness had testified at Suhakam that he saw Amri being abducted by men in four vehicles that looked like pickup trucks in Kangar, Perlis, on Nov 24, 2016.
Amri’s case received more interest recently, when Norhayati claimed that a police officer told her that Special Branch officers from Bukit Aman were responsible for the kidnapping of her husband, as well as of Pastor Koh.