After ‘enforced disappearances’, group demands home minister suspend cops, starting with IGP

KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — The Pakatan Harapan government can show its commitment to institutional reform following the shocking finding that the police force is involved in the disappearances of a pastor and an activist by suspending the officers in charge, Citizens Against Enforced Disappearances (Caged) said today.

For starters, Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should order the suspension of those officers if they are still in active duty, starting with Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun, within a week, the working group under human rights advocacy group Suara Rakyat Malaysia demanded.

“Exhaustively question them about their lies to the panel and their roles in these abductions and subject them to disciplinary procedures ending in appropriate punishments,” Caged said in a statement.

“Open investigations against former Inspector-General Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar who lied to the nation, and publicly rebuke the police force for boycotting the Suhakam Panel’s announcement and release of its decision yesterday,” it added.

Yesterday, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) announced its conclusion that the police Special Branch to be behind the “enforced disappearance” of Pastor Raymond Koh and Perlis Hope founder Amri Che Mat in 2017 and 2016 respectively, after a near two-year public inquiry into their abduction.

Fuzi was head of the Special Branch at the time Koh and Amri were taken forcibly by unknown men.

Caged suggested Muhyiddin also take the opportunity during the current parliamentary sitting to table the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission Bill which had been drafted in 2005, as well as publish a time-bound plan to execute all the actions called out by the Suhakam panel.

“It is time to restore public confidence in the police. It is time to fulfill the expectations of laypersons who helped the inquiry find the truth,” it said.

Caged added that failure to take action would show Muhyiddin to be a “puppet of the police” and should be replaced.

In May 2017, Caged delivered a memorandum to Suhakam over the disappearances of Koh, Amri and two other pastors Joshua and Ruth Hilmy, requesting they investigate the matter.

A panel of three commissioners was soon set up, who heard the statements of 40 witnesses over a period of 45 days, reviewed 214 exhibits, and received oral and written submissions from the families and the police.

Following Suhakam’s release of its 196-page report on the abductions yesterday, Bagan Datuk MP and former Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi claimed he gave no instructions to the Special Branch to commit the acts.

Incumbent IGP Fuzi deferred commenting on Suhakam’s conclusion saying he needs to read their report first while his predecessor Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar told Malay Mail he stands by his testimony to Suhakam during its inquiry, and that he has nothing further to say.