This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 5, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: The home ministry will consider opening investigations into the disappearance of pastor Raymond Koh and activist Amri Che Mat through a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI).

Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said he had yet to receive an official report from the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) on the results of its inquiry.

“We hope that Suhakam will submit the report they have prepared to us officially, and usually it (report) is sent to us (home ministry), the attorney-general, and the prime minister.

“We will be review if there is a need to reopen the case,” he said at the Parliament lobby,” Bernama reported.

Muhyiddin said however, the matter required the prosecution’s consent.

Koh, 64, was kidnapped by a group of masked men while he was driving in Kelana Jaya near here on Feb 13, 2017, while Amri, 44, who was the co-founder of the Perlis Hope welfare association, has been missing since Nov 24, 2016.

Suhakam, after a public inquiry, concluded that the police’s Special Branch was  involved in the disappearance of both the individuals.

Suhakam Commissioner Datuk Mah Weng Kwai in a press conference yesterday said copies of the report will be sent to the prime minister’s office, attorney general’s office, ministry of home affairs and the police.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad also said Suhakam had to furnish evidence that the police were involved in the disappearances.

The Malaysian Bar called for a special task force to reinvestigate the disappearance of the two persons, and especially to look into the police’s involvement in their disappearances.

The Bar said it was appalled that the Suhakam inquiry had found that Amri and Koh were the victims of enforced disappearance at the hands of the Special Branch.

The decision of the inquiry “sets out a litany of fake alternative explanations in what had been an ill-conceived and nefarious attempt to shift attention away from the Special Branch and to pin the responsibility for these disappearances on other groups or individuals,” it said in a statement.