Wife of missing Malaysian pastor expresses disappointment over abrupt halt of kidnapping inquiry
The wife of missing Malaysian Pastor Raymond Koh has expressed disappointment after the inquiry into her husband's kidnapping was suddenly halted on Wednesday.
The Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) decided to stop an ongoing public inquiry into the disappearance of Koh after authorities charged a 31-year-old driver identified as Lam Chang Nam with the kidnapping of the Christian pastor.
The pastor's wife, Susanna Liew, said that she was unaware that the driver had been charged in connection with the case.
Just weeks after Koh went missing on Feb. 13 last year, Lam was arrested for attempting to extort RM30,000 (US$7,613) from the pastor's son, Jonathan. Lam denied the charge, and the police subsequently cleared him of any involvement in the actual abduction of Koh.
Liew expressed disappointment that the police had charged someone who was previously cleared of involvement in the case, which, in turn, put a halt to the investigation.
"It is very shocking for us as the family as we had no idea that this was going to happen. Our hope when we came to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) was to find some answers to the many questions we had about his abduction," Liew said at a press conference, according to Free Malaysia Today.
"We are very disappointed that our hope to find answers and exercise our human rights for truth and justice is being denied. We hope that there will be justice, and although we still have hope in the system, I'm afraid that today this hope has been crushed," she went on to say.
SUHAKAM explained on Wednesday that it was legally required to stop the probe, citing Section 12(3) of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act, which states that the commission should "immediately cease" an inquiry if the subject matter becomes part of a court proceeding.
On Monday, the commission received a letter from Malaysia's police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun indicating that Lam had been charged in court in relation to the case.
Fuzi had stated that the police had found new leads to link Lam to the actual kidnapping and that investigations were still ongoing.
"He is a suspect in the kidnapping of pastor Raymond Koh early last year, along with seven more individuals still at large," the police chief said, without providing further details.
A video footage purported to be of the incident showed that at least 15 men and three black SUVs were involved in the abduction. Some believed that the kidnapping had something to do with Koh's alleged attempts to spread Christianity, but the family dismissed the claims.