No stay of order to hand over Pastor Koh’s disappearance report

 

FMT:

No stay of order to hand

over Pastor Koh’s

disappearance report

Ho Kit Yen

-22 Aug 2024, 01:40 PM

The High Court says the government’s application to suspend its Aug 15 ruling has no merit.

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Pastor Raymond Koh’s wife, Susanna Liew, is suing the government and the police over his unlawful abduction and disappearance on Feb 13, 2017.

KUALA LUMPUR: 

The High Court here has refused to suspend its ruling ordering the government to hand over a classified task force report on Pastor Raymond Koh’s disappearance to his wife.

Justice Su Tiang Joo said the application to stay his ruling, issued last Thursday, had no merit.

He said the government had failed to justify why the task force report could not be released to Susanna Liew.

Until and unless the court order is set aside, it must be obeyed,

 said Su.

The court also ordered the government to pay Liew RM3,000 in costs.

Earlier today, senior federal counsel Nurul Farhana Khalid, appearing for the police and the government, said the report could not be released before Sept 13 as there were 

governmental procedures

 that needed to be complied with.

Lawyer Jerald Gomez, appearing for Liew, said his client agreed to withhold contempt proceedings until Sept 13, after Farhana informed the court that the government has undertaken to hand over the report before that day.

Su had on Aug 15 allowed Liew’s application for the production of the document on grounds that it is relevant to her ongoing lawsuit against the government and the police over Koh’s disappearance.

He ordered the government to produce the report within three days from Aug 15.

In his ruling last week, Su had said the government had failed to justify why the report was classified a government secret.

Liew had sought access to the classified report on grounds that Koh’s family had the right to know the findings made by the task force in respect of his disappearance.

She filed the present lawsuit four years ago against the police, the inspector-general of police (IGP) and several high-ranking former police officers.

Among the defendants named were former IGPs Khalid Abu Bakar and Fuzi Harun, and former principal assistant director of the Special Branch’s social extremism division Awaludin Jadid.

Liew wants the authorities to be held liable for Koh’s unlawful abduction on Feb 13, 2017, and for misfeasance in public office. She is also seeking damages over his disappearance.