SUHAKAM Press Release

PRESS RELEASE: SUHAKAM PUBLIC INQUIRY DAY ONE
“The point of this inquiry is to get to truth and justice”
SUHAKAM  begins its public inquiry into disappearances

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 19 October 2017 – The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (“SUHAKAM”) began its Public Inquiry on the disappearances of Pastor Raymond Koh, social activist Amri Che Mat and Pastor Joshua Hilmi and his wife, this morning at SUHAKAM’s office in Menara TH Perdana, Kuala Lumpur.

The Public Inquiry will take place from 19th October until 17th November 2017.

          In his opening remarks, the panel’s chairperson and SUHAKAM commissioner Dato’ Mah Weng Kwai said, “The whole point of this inquiry is to get to truth and justice.”

          Dato’ Mah stated that the first four days – 19th October, 20th October, 30th October and 2nd November – would be focused on the Raymond Koh case.

          He also introduced his fellow panelists and SUHAKAM commissioners Prof. Dato’ Dr Aishah Bidin and Dr Nik Salida Suhaila binti Nik Saleh, and stated the terms of reference of the Inquiry (see below). Assisting the panel were SUHAKAM officers Mr. Shahizad Sulaiman and Mr. Joshua Erikson.

          Dato’ Mah elaborated on the various United Nations declarations SUHAKAM would be using for further definition of “applicable human rights laws” and the scope of “enforced disappearances”; i.e., for the former, he cited the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Declaration (UDHR) as reference, and for the latter, he cited the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly resolution 47/133 in 1992, specifically Article 2:

          “For the purposes of this Convention, “enforced disappearance” is considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.”

          The Inquiry called upon law pupil Mr. Roeshan Celestine Gomez (“Mr. Gomez”) as its first witness. Mr. Gomez is the eyewitness who had lodged the first police report in connection to the Raymond Koh abduction. He gave a very detailed testimony of what he had seen on the morning of 13th February 2017 at about 10:30am at the location of the abduction along Jalan Bahagia in Kelana Jaya.

          Mr. Gomez had been driving with a friend in his car on that stretch of road after attending a funeral at a church nearby. He had been en route to a crematorium when he came across the abduction as it was unfolding.

          “I saw black SUVs surrounding a car. I saw a push and pull struggle between two men. My friend tried to record this on her phone, but an Indian man came to my car to gesture to us to stop. I reversed my car. Another man was recording this on his phone.”

          The Inquiry then played clips of original CCTV footage from security cameras of two houses in the vicinity. Mr. Gomez confirmed the veracity of parts of the footage that he had seen from his vantage point on 13th February.

          Mr. Gomez also told the Inquiry that he had lodged a police report on the same day at the Kelana Jaya Police Station. This police report was lodged close to noon on 13th February. According to him, about two hours after lodging the report, he met with Inspector Ali Asra, the investigating officer at the Kelama Jaya Police Station.

          In reply to a question by Dato’ Mah about this meeting, Mr. Gomez said that he had expressed his concern to Inspector Ali that what he may have witnessed could be a kidnapping. In response, Mr. Gomez claimed that Inspector Ali had asked him to not worry “as it looks very much like the ‘modus’ of a police operation”.

           When further questioned, Mr. Gomez elaborated: “He [Inspector Ali] gave me a few reasons why [he thought it was a police operation]. He cited [the presence of] the SUVs, the man recording, the fully masked men and that it was in broad daylight as indication that it could have been a police operation.”

          Mr. Gomez also confirmed that the police had asked him and his friend (who had been a passenger in his car) to a ‘photo-fit’ session at the Petaling Jaya Police Headquarters on 16th February, three days after the abduction.

The Inquiry was adjourned at about 12:40pm.

          After today’s session, Dato’ Jerald Gomez, who is one of the lawyers acting on behalf of Raymond Koh’s family, said: “We are happy with day one of the inquiry, especially with the way the commissioners handled the inquiry, with even-handedness and fairness. We look forward to the police giving their account of what transpired.”

          The Public Inquiry will resume tomorrow, 9 a.m., October 20th, with the testimony of Susanna Liew, the wife of Raymond Koh.


PRESS RELEASE: SUHAKAM PUBLIC INQUIRY DAY TWO

“I told him he was a marked man”- Abducted pastor’s friend recounts their last conversation

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 20 October 2017 – The Public Inquiry by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (“SUHAKAM”) into the disappearances of Pastor Raymond Koh (“Raymond”), social activist Amri Che Mat and Pastor Joshua Hilmi and his wife Ruth entered its second day with three witnesses called by the Inquiry panel.

          First to be called was Raymond’s wife Susanna Liew, who testified during the morning session. She recounted in detail the events on the day of Raymond’s abduction, 13th February 2017, and the days that followed, specifically her interactions with the police. She described how she was questioned during three separate sessions by the police, starting with the night of 13th February when she went to the Kelana Jaya Police Station to lodge a missing person’s report after hearing from friends and family members that they had been unable to contact Raymond since that morning. Upon arriving at the police station, she said she was brought to an investigation room at the station and questioned there for five hours, from 10pm to 3am.

          “At the end of these five hours, I was exhausted…I was anxious and extremely worried about my husband’s whereabouts and his well-being. The police did not give me any information and continued to ask questions about his work and activities as a social worker. I was utterly confused by this line of questioning,” she related, referring to the investigation officer Inspector Ali’s repeated questions to her if Raymond was involved in “proselytizing” and “Christianization” activities.

          This line of questioning continued in subsequent sessions she had with other police officers on 14th and 16th February 2017, even though she had pointed out to them that their queries about Raymond proselytizing Muslims “were unrelated to finding Raymond and that they were losing precious time.”

          This line of questioning was also the experience of the next witness who testified after her: Sri Ram K.S. Gopala Iyer, a director of Harapan Komuniti, the nonprofit organisation that Raymond had founded. Sri Ram, 57, recounted his interactions with the police after the abduction. He recollected a police raid at Harapan Komuniti’s Inspirasi KL reading room in Taman Sri Manja on 15th February. During this raid, Sri Ram recalled the police removing a page from the Inspirasi KL reading room register book, which had a list of names of children who used the room.

          The police followed up on this with two sessions of questioning Muslim children and youth who attended tuition or studied at the Inspirasi KL premises, with all these sessions conducted with neither lawyers nor guardians present. Some of these questions were religiously loaded queries, like asking a Muslim youth his religion, if he attended church and if the Bible was talked about in Inspirasi KL.

          Sri Ram also recounted that during a session on 14th February, the police officer questioning him had asked whom Sri Ram thought had kidnapped Raymond: “I replied: ‘The police’.”

          When asked later during the Inquiry why he had said this, Sri Ram replied that during his last meeting with Raymond in early January 2017, Raymond had confided that he was “still under pressure by the special branch”. Sri Ram continued: “I told Raymond that he was a marked man.”
          In reply to a follow up question on this by Panel Chairperson Dato’ Mah Weng Kwai (“Dato’ Mah”), Sri Ram elaborated that he had based this on past experiences, including the 3rd August 2011 raid by JAIS on a Harapan Komuniti thanksgiving and fundraising dinner and the harassment faced by Harapan Komuniti and Raymond since then.

          Sri Ram also referred to the harassment at immigration when Raymond travelled in and out of Malaysia, either alone or with his family, in 2011. (These episodes at Malaysian border control checkpoints had been recounted earlier by Susanna Liew in her own testimony to the Inquiry.)

          Dato’ Mah later asked, “When you said to Raymond that he was a ‘marked man’, what was his reaction?”

          “He agreed that he was a marked man,” Sri Ram replied.

          Raymond’s 33-year old son Jonathan Koh was the next person called to testify at around 4:25pm. However, there was only enough time for him to read through his witness statement that was submitted to SUHAKAM on 31st July 2017 and to answer a few preliminary questions posed by SUHAKAM officer Shahizad Sulaiman and the Panel Commissioners.

          Dato’ Mah adjourned the Inquiry at 5:00pm. The Inquiry will resume at 9am, 30th October, when Jonathan Koh will continue his testimony.

          After today’s session, Dato’ Dr Gurdial Singh Nijar, one of the lawyers acting on behalf of Raymond Koh’s family, said: “We are pleased with the progress of the inquiry so far, especially with the participation of observers from the Malaysian Bar Council, EAIC and also the police”.