Displaying items by tag: Raymond Koh

A landmark ruling in Malaysia has recognised state involvement in the disappearance of Pastor Raymond Koh, who was abducted in broad daylight in February 2017 and has not been seen since. The high court has ordered the government and police to pay RM 37 million (about £6.8 million) in compensation for wrongful acts. Justice Su Tiang Joo allocated RM 33 million for the enforced disappearance and a further RM 4 million in damages to Pastor Koh’s wife, Susanna Liew, with RM 250,000 awarded for costs. Importantly, the funds must be held in trust until Koh’s whereabouts are known, highlighting the ongoing search for truth. Koh’s abduction, which was captured on camera, involved three SUVs and fifteen men and was completed within forty seconds. While the ruling offers a measure of closure and vindication, his wife expressed deep concern that authorities have failed to act on the findings of previous inquiries or take any action against police officers who are confirmed as taking part in the abduction. Calling on the government to hold an enquiry about what happened to Pastor Koh and his present whereabouts, CSW’s president Mervyn Thomas said, ‘This is a landmark decision which demonstrates the judiciary’s independence by holding state actors accountable, and setting a legal precedent for cases involving enforced disappearance’.

Malaysia’s human rights commission claims that both Pastor Raymond Koh (in 2017) and Amri Che Mat, a Muslim social activist (in 2016), were victims of state-sponsored enforced disappearances, carried out by a police unit. Church leaders are calling on the government to clarify and separate the jurisdictions of the religious authorities and the police, and for an immediate independent, impartial investigation into both cases, ‘free of conflict of interest’. Eyewitness accounts in both cases reported that the men were kidnapped as they travelled in cars which were boxed in by three other vehicles. A car owned by a Special Branch officer, who has now gone missing, was at the scene of both attacks. The two men are amongst many people who have ‘disappeared’ in recent years. The government’s 2018 general election manifesto promised to uphold the rule of law, stating that ‘all citizens will be treated equally before the law’.