PUTRAJAYA, April 1 — The Malaysian government today withdrew its appeal against a High Court ruling, which had granted Pastor Raymond Koh’s family access to a classified report.

As reported by Free Malaysia Today (FMT), senior federal counsel Nurul Farhana Khalid today informed the Court of Appeal that a notice of discontinuation had been filed, leading the panel to strike out the appeal.

While Nurul Farhana reportedly asked the court to not order the government to pay for legal costs, Koh's family's lawyer Michelle Wong had objected to this.

Wong reportedly asked for the court to award RM15,000 in costs to Koh's family, due to the substantial work that had been put in to respond to the government's appeal, including the family's filing of an application last month to give new evidence to the court. 

The Court of Appeal panel, chaired by Justice Datuk Supang Lian alongside Justices Datuk Ismail Brahim and K Muniandy, then awarded RM15,000 in costs to Koh’s family despite the government’s request to waive it.

Koh has been missing since his abduction on February 13, 2017.

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia's (Suhakam) inquiry in April 2019 concluded that Koh and the still-missing activist Amri Che Mat were victims of enforced disappearance carried out by the police’s Special Branch.

On August 15, 2024, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur had ordered the police and government to give Koh's wife a special task force report on Amri's and Koh's disappearance.

But the government had on September 9, 2024 appealed against the High Court order to give the report to Koh's wife, and this is the appeal which it had withdrawn today.