Former minister Khairy Jamaluddin has denied he sent any emails to or communicated with missing Pastor Joshua Hilmy, as alleged by a witness during the Suhakam public inquiry today.
Joshua allegedly:
- Received emails from Khairy warning him to leave
- Felt unsafe and wanted to heed the warning
- Baptised more than 10 Malays
- Knew the authorities were looking for him
- The pastor was allegedly warned to leave the country.
In a statement, the former Youth and Sports Minister said he did not know Joshua, his wife Ruth or Selvakumar Peace John Harris, who made the allegations against him.
“It was reported that Selvakumar, who was a witness at the proceedings, alleged I sent emails to Joshua warning him that he should leave the country.
“I would like to state unequivocally that I have never communicated with Joshua either though emails or in any other form of communication.
“The testimony of Selvakumar relating to me is not true,” he said.
Selvakumar is the fifth witness to testify in the Suhakam public inquiry into Joshua and Ruth’s disappearance on November 30, 2016. They were last seen in Petaling Jaya.
He is the owner of the Petaling Jaya house in which Joshua and Ruth stayed.
He alleged he had seen several emails sent to Joshua.
The emails warning Joshua to leave referred to him supposedly converting Muslims to Christianity, according to Selvakumar.
“Joshua called me in December 2015 and said that he had been threatened.
“He (Khairy) sent an email to Joshua telling him to leave.
“I believe this was over a Malay couple he had baptised at the house in January 2015,” Selvakumar told the inquiry.
Suhakam commissioner Hishamuddin Yunus, who is chairing the inquiry, then asked Selvakumar how he knew the email was from Khairy.
He replied that he saw emails in Khairy’s name in May 2016 when Joshua visited him in Sg Bakam, Butterworth.
One email had an official address and several others were from a personal email address.
“In one of the emails, I saw there was ‘gov.my’ at the end, then I knew it was official.
“The emails started off friendly, then ended with a warning,” Selvakumar told the inquiry.
When asked for Joshua’s response after receiving the email, Selvakumar said Joshua felt unsafe and wanted to heed the urging.
The witness also testified that he saw Joshua baptising a Malay couple, in addition to 10 other Malay couples — a claim that led to Hishamuddin asking him whether he was sure they were Muslims. Selvakumar concurred.
Hishamuddin then asked Selvakumar about the Malay couple that was baptised and how he knew the emails were about the couple.
“I saw an email which had the couple’s names on it,” the witness said.
Selvakumar added that he had witnessed Joshua baptising the Malay couple at his house on January 1, 2015.
“I had witnessed for myself the baptism which took place in the bathroom where they used the shower and prayed over them.
“He (Joshua) then uploaded the baptism pictures on Facebook.
“It was not the first time, I think he has baptised more Malays, about more than 10 people.”
Selvakumar also told the inquiry that Joshua knew the authorities were looking for him and decided to vacate the house.
He said he allowed Joshua and Ruth to live at the house rent-free after meeting them at a church and getting to know them in Butterworth in 2014.
“Ruth had been preaching at St Mary’s Church in Butterworth. I got to know them and after about a month, I invited them to my home. It was then that I offered them my place to stay in Petaling Jaya rent free as they were planning to be in Kuala Lumpur,” Selvakumar said.
Little is known about Joshua and Ruth. Two years after their disappearance, Ruth’s siblings lodged a police report in 2018.
Ruth’s family come from the fishing village of Nambiki in northern Sumatra, Indonesia.
International human rights laws define enforced disappearance as when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organisation, or by a third party with the authorisation, support or acquiescence of a state or political organisation.