Lawyers want answers from Bukit Aman while PM says to let IGP retire and then successor can probe.
Calls for action:
- Muhyiddin and Mujahid to respond to alleged police involvement in abductions
- Act against senior officers who instructed subordinates to carry out abductions
- Release Amri, Koh
- Arrest ex-IGP Khalid and former Home Minister Zahid
- Suspend IGP Fuzi pending probe into enforced disappearances
- Open investigations
The lawyers of Amri Che Mat and Pastor Raymond Koh have asked the police to answer the “serious” allegations made against them in Suhakam’s decision yesterday.
Lawyer Gurdial Singh Nijhar said that it was significant that the police chose not to come.
“They have been participating all this while, but for reasons best known to themselves, have been conspicuous in their absence today.
“Now they should answer because they have been targeted as those responsible for the abductions,” he said yesterday after Suhakam presented its findings.
He also noted that Citizen Action Group On Enforced Disappearance (Caged) spokesman Rama Ramanathan said they were very happy with the “bold” decision by the Suhakam panel.
Caged, along with Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), were instrumental in the initiation of the public inquiry.
“We are amazed as this was a very bold decision (by Suhakam), to be able to say point-blank that Special Branch, acting out of Bukit Aman, was responsible for the abductions,” said Rama.
“The only reason they came to that decision is because of the vigorous way the inquiry panel used a blend of inquisitorial processes.”
Rama said the Suhakam panel members are all law-trained, adding that they are confident in their findings because of the way they reviewed the evidence and challenged it, despite the lack of cooperation from the police.
“The Suhakam inquiry has confirmed what everyone knew – that the evidence supports the public’s belief that police cannot be trusted.
“Because of the limitations placed on Suhakam, it was difficult to answer the pertinent question of who ordered the abductions.
“This is a shame on the police force.
“There was only one person who came as an informant, but he later backed down,” said Rama, referring to Sergeant Shamzaini Mohd Daud, who was called to testify after he allegedly told Amri’s wife, Norhayati Ariffin, that a special team from the federal police headquarters was responsible for the disappearance of her husband and Koh.
However, Shamzaini then lodged a police report, denying he had said anything to Norhayati.
Caged has also called for an official response from Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of religious affairs Mujahid Yusof Rawa.
“What we now want to know is, who gave the directive and who ordered the cover-up?
“This is why an independent investigation is needed, and why the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission is needed,” Rama was quoted as saying.
He said the police officers named at the inquiry were “fairly junior”, and they wanted action against the more senior officers who had given them instructions.
“Both the police and the religious authorities were implicated in Perlis and Selangor (in the disappearances of Amri and Koh),” he was quoted as telling FMT.
“These people shouldn’t be allowed to get off scot-free.”
Suaram adviser Kua Kia Soong urged Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Attorney-General Tommy Thomas to step in without delay and secure the release of the two men, and bring those responsible to face justice.
Kua, in a statement, said police and the Home Ministry have maintained an unacceptable nonchalance since the abductions took place.
“They have consistently refused to acknowledge that they played a role in the abductions, or shed light on the whereabouts of the missing activists.
“Now that they have been fingered as the abductors, those in Special Branch, the inspector-general of police, as well as the Home Ministry, who ordered the abductions must be brought to book.”
The New Malaysia, Kua said, must never tolerate enforced disappearances, largely used by military dictatorships and banana republics.
He added that the finding of Suhakam that Amri and Koh were victims of enforced disappearances “is the most serious indictment against the Malaysian police to date”.
Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy said Mohamad Fuzi Harun had been Special Branch chief when Koh was abducted in broad daylight by several men in February 2017.
“Now he is IGP. He needs to resign, and Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin must also ensure that both he and former IGP Khalid Abu Bakar are investigated.
“Take all the culprits to court,” he was quoted as telling FMT.
The Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) has called for the immediate arrest of former inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar and former home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) secretary-general Reverend Dr Hermen Shastri said Amri and Koh falling victim to enforced disappearance due to reasons linked to religion has tainted the country’s image.
“It is a black mark on the image of the country because they were persons who professed and exercised their religious freedom or had some religious persuasion, and because of that, they were abducted.
“They were not abducted for political reasons. They were abducted for religious reasons. This goes directly to religious freedom.”
He said CCM hopes the government will take the matter seriously and reach a resolution at the soonest possible time, adding that an independent and impartial probe should be conducted.
This will show that the government is serious about implementing the rule of law, he said.
Echoing Shastri’s sentiments, civil society groups like Suaram and Aliran are urging the government to heed the call to open investigations.
Describing Suhakam’s findings as alarming, Aliran said priority should be placed on finding out what exactly happened to the victims and the identities of the direct and indirect perpetrators.
The group said it is also important to determine the chain of command, and on whose instructions the abductions were carried out.
“Task force investigators need to be mindful of the concept of ‘plausible deniability’. Were the culprits acting as a rogue group, or were they taking orders from a chain of command?
“In the case of illegal or otherwise disreputable and unpopular activities becoming public, high-ranking officials may deny knowledge of such acts to insulate themselves and shift blame onto the agents who carried out the said acts, as they are confident that their doubters will be unable to prove otherwise.”
Klang MP Charles Santiago claimed Inspector General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun is hiding information about Amri and Koh.
“This is heinous and Fuzi must be investigated for covering up this violation of human rights and crime under international human rights law.
“The government must also investigate other police officers complicit in this crime and start declaring these cases as enforced disappearances,” he said in a statement.
Santiago said abducting these people is a grave violation of police powers and the police have no right to place them outside the protection of the law, if needed should charge the perpetrators in an open court.
“It’s time to set-up an independent police complaints and misconduct commission, without any delay.
“The idea was mooted 14 years ago and does not need further deliberation or feedback as proposed by Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.”
He said Malaysians need to feel safe in their country.
“We need to believe that the police have our backs; that they will protect us. But we don’t.”
Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh said Fuzi should resign or be suspended pending investigations into the alleged enforced disappearances of Amri and Koh.
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, however, said the IGP should be allowed to retire first before a new IGP is appointed and can probe claims that Fuzi was involved in the disappearances.
Dr Mahathir was responding to Malaysian the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam)’s public inquiry revelations that the abductions of Amri and Koh were “enforced disappearance” with the likely involvement of state agents such as the police’s Special Branch.
Fuzi was Bukit Aman’s Special Branch director in 2017, before succeeding Khalid as the IGP on September 4 of the same year. He will be retiring on May 4.
Dr Mahathir also said that Suhakam needs to furnish proof to back their findings.
“This (investigation on the disappearance of the two men) needs evidence. I do not know if they have evidence to prove that this is what happened. If they have evidence, we have to take it up. This did not happen during our tenure. It happened during the previous Barisan Nasional government. A lot of the things done by Barisan are hidden from us and the public,” said Dr Mahathir.
In an immediate reaction to Suhakam’s findings, Fuzi said he will not comment until he has read the commission’s report.
The Malaysian Insight reported that former IGP Khalid refused to be drawn into the matter.
“Ask the IGP. I am no longer the IGP,” he was quoted as saying when contacted.
The Mail Mail reported that Khalid said he was not aware of Amri’s case and only learnt about it via news reports.
Khalid was the serving IGP at the time Amri, Koh and couple Joshua and Ruth Hilmy, who are Christian preachers, disappeared.
He was appointed as the nation’s 10th IGP in May 2013 and retired in 2017.
Earlier reports:
Apr 4, Wives of Missing Activists Want Their Husbands, Justice
Apr 4, Findings of Suhakam Inquiry into Abduction – Enforced Disappearance