Former High Court Judge Datuk Abd Rahim Uda will lead a six-man special task force to probe the alleged enforced disappearances of Amri Che Mat and Raymond Koh.
Two of them are former head of the Royal Malaysia Police’s legal division, Datuk Zamri Yahya who is Bukit Aman’s Integrity and Standard Compliance department director; and Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (SIAP) operations director Datuk Bukhari Ab Hamid.
The remaining two are Mohd Sophian Zakaria of the Attorney General’s Chambers and Mohd Russaini Idrus who is the undersecretary for the Police Commission.
The members of the taskforce were introduced by Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
He said the taskforce would investigate if it was indeed true that the Special Branch was involved in the disappearances of Amri and Koh, as concluded by Suhakam.
“I am confident that the special task force will be able to carry out their duty to look into the matter.
“I expect to get a report on their findings in six months and leave it to them to determine who to be called in the process of their investigation,” he told reporters on Wednesday (June 26).
The special task force was formed by the Cabinet last month following Suhakam’s verdict last April that Bukit Aman’s Special Branch was likely behind the disappearances.
Muhyiddin said to avoid sub judice, the task force would look into Amri’s case first.
He also stressed that the task force is not a royal commission of inquiry, meaning that investigations may be internal.
“In both cases, it will be dealt with internally. I do not feel the necessity to make it public, but I leave it entirely to the chairman,” he said, adding however that the final report will be made public as it is a matter of public interest.
On whether the task force will question the 40 witnesses who testified during the Suhakam inquiry, Muhyiddin said it would be up to the task force to decide.
He added that those on the task force who are existing or former members of the police force are from independent departments and not the Special Branch.
“We do not want any assumptions about this task force being the police investigating the police,” he said. “That is why we have a former High Court judge leading it.”
He said the task force had been set up to look into the allegations in the Suhakam report.
“But beyond that, we want to discover the truth behind the disappearances.”
Task force chairman Rahim said they hope to start meeting next week.
Amri, who is the co-founder of the non-governmental organisation Perlis Hope, went missing on Nov 24, 2016, after leaving his home in Kangar in an SUV at about 11.30pm.
Pastor Koh, who founded the NGO Harapan Komuniti, was believed to have been abducted in broad daylight by a group of men along Jalan SS4B/10 in Petaling Jaya on Feb 13, 2017, while on his way to a friend’s house.