Amri, Koh not enforced disappearance victims: Report

Amri, Koh not enforced disappearance victims: Report

Hidir Reduan Abdul Rashid
Published: Oct 22, 2024 10:47 PM


Social activist Amri Che Mat and Pastor Raymond Koh were not victims of enforced disappearance, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.

The special task force report classified under the Official Secrets Act 1972 instead pointed the finger at rogue police officers who were acting without orders from superiors.

The task force’s former chairperson, Abdul Rahim Uda, was reading out from the report over the incidents against Amri and Koh on Nov 24, 2016, and Feb 13, 2017, respectively.

The retired Shah Alam High Court judge said the missing persons case here does not fulfil the requirements for enforced disappearance under the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICP).

Article 2 of the ICP states: “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 authorisation, 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.”

“Here, the task force finds that the disappearance of Koh is not enforced disappearance per ICP, whereby there was no denial by the government and police force in the disappearance or hiding of Koh and Amri,” Rahim told judge Su Tiang Joo.

When Koh’s family counsel, Steven Thiru, asked whether there was denial by the police over being involved in the disappearances, Rahim replied that there was none.

He said the main suspect in the disappearances was Saiful Bahari Abd Aziz, a contract worker for the quarters of Bukit Aman’s Special Branch officers from 2006 to 2018.

Rahim said the task force’s finding was due to Saiful’s gold-coloured Toyota Vios with registration plate PFC 1623 being seen at or near the scenes of the incidents involving Amri and Koh at Kangar, Perlis and Petaling Jaya, Selangor, respectively.

He noted that the police had been cuai (lax) in failing to provide Saiful’s contract details or track him down to be interviewed by the task force.

“The most glaring one was his (Saiful) Toyota Vios car seen at the scenes of Amri and Koh’s abductions. He was attached to the Special Branch headquarters (at Bukit Aman) as a quarters supervisor.

“He was in charge of a single quarter. To hire someone on a contractual basis for 12 years was not reasonable. If so good, might as well confirm (Saiful).

“Why engage a contract officer for 12 years, and when the issue (disappearances) erupted, he disappeared into thin air? Very strange,” Rahim remarked.

Rahim said the word cuai was used against the police as they failed to produce Saiful who worked on contract with them for 12 years and also to track down the Toyota Vios in question.

“We are not satisfied with the (police) investigation regarding Saiful. We feel more could have been done and in a much better way,” Rahim mused.


More could have been done

He further said the task force also found that four police officers - Khor Yi Shuen, Azizie Abd Hamid, Shamzaini Daud, and Hazril Kamis - did not do enough in the probe over the duo’s disappearances.

“Work-wise, they did not come up to par as police officers. They did not do enough in the two cases,” Rahim said regarding the task force’s recommendation for further action over the four officers.

He explained that in Koh’s broad daylight abduction, the Road Transport Department did not have any records of the registration numbers of the four-wheel drives surrounding the victim’s car.

Rahim was referring to a viral 2017 video showing Koh being abducted by individuals who surrounded him in four-wheel drive vehicles.

He also remarked that a police officer interviewed by the task force said that Koh’s abduction did not look professional.

Rahim said the officer told the task force that this was because no trained police commandos would ever carry out such operations in a location like a road where bystanders could be hurt or killed.

He said the police officer told the task force the modus operandi was not well coordinated and not properly executed and that the abductors could have learned how to surround a car via looking up the internet.


Earlier oral evidence

The former task force officer was testifying in the hearing of a lawsuit by Koh’s family to force the police and government to divulge the whereabouts of the 68-year-old.

Rahim’s testimony backed earlier oral evidence given by another former task force member, Zamri Yahya, who said Amri and Koh may have been abducted by rogue police officers in cahoots with members of religious organisations.

Raymond Koh’s wife Susanna Liew


The civil court hearing of Koh’s family’s suit before Su resumes tomorrow.

In 2019, Suhakam ruled that Amri and Koh were victims of enforced disappearance perpetrated by members of the Special Branch from Bukit Aman.

Amri was last seen leaving his home in Kangar, Perlis, whereas CCTV footage showed Koh being abducted in broad daylight in Petaling Jaya while he was on the way to a friend’s house.

After the Suhakam finding, Koh’s wife, Susanna Liew, 67, filed a civil suit against the police and government.

Amri’s wife, Norhayati Mohd Ariffin, filed a separate lawsuit to compel the authorities to reveal the whereabouts of her missing husband.

She is also relying on the same special task force report.