KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — Citizens Against Enforced Disappearances (Caged) has refused to retract its allegation that Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar had lied during the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) inquiry into the disappearance of a pastor and an activist.
Its spokesman Rama Ramanathan said that the non-governmental organisation was prepared to face a lawsuit after the former Inspector-General of Police demanded that it apologise and retract its statement or be sued.
“I think with respect to him lying to the inquiry, we stand by what we said. I have no reservations about repeating it, and he can sue us if he wants.
“We look forward to being sued by him,” Rama told Malay Mail when contacted.
He said that Caged came to the conclusion as Khalid’s testimony on Pastor Raymond Koh and Perlis Hope founder Amri Che Mat contradicted that of the investigating police officers assigned to both the cases.
“Basically, the things that he told the (inquiry) commission were not confirmed by the investigating officers. They denied it.
“So how could he say something which the investigating officers couldn’t support?” Rama said.
“If he wants to sue us, we look forward to our day in court,” he added.
Earlier today, Khalid threatened legal action against the human rights advocacy group, whom he accused of making malicious and defamatory statements against him.
He insisted that he did not provide false testimony to Suhakam during its 18-month public inquiry.
“I find that Caged’s remark, blindly accusing me of lying to the nation, and I believe that the NGO is accusing me of this, by way of my testimony to the Suhakam inquiry panellists, to be malicious and defamatory.
“In my defence, I would like to clearly state here, that I was not lying in my testimony. I stand by what I had stated to the panel members and I still do,” Khalid said in a statement to Malay Mail.
He demanded an apology from Caged, which is part of non-governmental organisation Suara Rakyat Malaysia.
Caged had issued a statement earlier today, calling on the Pakatan Harapan government to prove its commitment to institutional reform by taking immediate action on those perpetrators involved in the “enforced disappearances”.
Among others, it urged the home minister to suspend the police officers in charge of those cases within the week, including incumbent IGP Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun; the latter was head of the Special Branch at the time Koh and Amri were taken forcibly by unknown men.
Caged also demanded the government investigate Khalid, whom it claimed “lied to the nation, and publicly rebuke the police force for boycotting the Suhakam Panel’s announcement and release of its decision yesterday”.
Khalid had explained that he was not present when Suhakam announced its conclusions that incriminated the police, in particular, the Special Branch as being behind the “enforced disappearances” of the pastor and activist because he was not invited.
However, he said he will cooperate in any future investigations on the two men’s disappearances.
Rama confirmed that like Caged, Khalid was indeed not invited to the announcement.
“First of all, he was not expected to attend, because he’s retired. He’s no longer the IGP, so he was called as a witness. He was not called as a member of the (police) force.
“So there is no reason why he should be invited to attend the decision announcement. To emphasise this point, even Caged wasn’t invited. We just saw the date and just showed up. So if he was really concerned about the decision, then he should have come,” Rama said.
Suhakam had yesterday concluded that the police Special Branch was behind the “enforced disappearance” of Koh and Amri in 2017 and 2016 respectively.
