The Malaysian Insight

THERE is no reason to classify the findings of the task force set up to look into the disappearance of activists Amri Che Mat and Pastor Raymond Koh, lawyer Surendra Ananth said today.

The lawyer, acting on behalf of Amri’s wife Norhayati Ariffin, said the classification of the report under the Official Secrets Act is just one of a series of stonewalls his client has encountered since she filed a civil suit in 2019.

“We do not believe that there is a legitimate or reasonable reason to classify as an official secret, a report of a task force announced so publicly two years ago,” he said in a statement.

An inquiry by the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) into the disappearance of Amri and Koh concluded it was highly likely they were victims of enforced disappearance and abducted by the police Special Branch.

Enforced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organisation or by a third party with the state’s authorisation, support or acquiescence, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person’s fate and whereabouts, with the intent of placing the victim outside the protection of the law.

In 2019, then home minister Muhyiddin Yassin ordered a special task force to look into Suhakam’s findings. The task force was given six months, beginning June the same year, to do the job.  

The same year, Norhayati filed a civil suit for special and general damages as a last resort after failing to receive information from police investigators on her husband’s disappearance.

The suit named former prime minister Muhyiddin, former home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, former inspectors-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar and Mohamad Fuzi Harun, and former principal assistant director Commissioner Awaludin Jadid as defendants.

On May 25, her lawyers filed a request for discovery for a copy of the task force’s report to be made available to the court.

In a reply in September, the government refused to make the report available on the grounds that it was classified under the Official Secrets Act.

Norhayati said she was disappointed at the new development.

“Why is this report a secret? How can it be against national interest? I thought that the purpose of this task force was to find out what exactly happened to Amri and Pastor Raymond and yet the conspiracy of silence surrounding these enforced disappearances continues,” she said.

Another high-profile disappearance often associated with Amri’s is that of Koh, who was snatched by masked men in broad daylight while driving on Jalan SS4B/10 in Petaling Jaya, on February 13, 2017.

Lawyer Larissa Ann Louis, also acting on behalf of Norhayati, said they are considering all options to make the report public.

“Making the special task force report public is important, not just for our case, but also for the Malaysian public who were shocked at the findings made by Suhakam in 2019. We all have the right to know the task force’s findings.” she said.

Today marks five years since Amri went missing after leaving his home in Kangar, Perlis. At least two separate witnesses told the Suhakam inquiry they saw Amri’s car stopped on the side of
the road, about 550m from his home, and surrounded by three dark SUVs on the night he vanished.

His disappearance came after years of being publicly targeted by the Perlis state Islamic authorities and investigated by the Special Branch in Perlis and Bukit Aman after being accused of proselytising Shia Islam. He was also a social activist with non-profit group Perlis Hope.

Norhayati, however, denied Amri had proselytised during the Suhakam inquiry.

She told The Malaysian Insight that her family’s life has been upended since the disappearance of her husband.

Norhayati and her four daughters will mark the fifth anniversary of Amri’s disappearance at home in Perlis.

“Each year, I ask myself the same question: what happened to my husband? The government’s silence is continuing our torture of what we are going through since that night five years ago,” she said.

“It kills hope even as we are all frozen here in our grief, unable to move on without answers.” – November 24, 2021.