100 days after Raymond Koh’s abduction, wife calls for his release, justice

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Pastor Raymond Koh

PETALING JAYA: A hundred days after the  abducion of her husband Pastor Raymond Koh, Susanna Liew has appealed for Koh’s release.

“What my children and I want most of all is the release of my husband, safe and sound; and for his abductors and their accomplices to be brought to justice.”

Koh was abducted on a residential street in Petaling Jaya by a large group of men in a convoy of cars. According to an eyewitness to the February 13 abduction, black SUVs had surrounded the Honda Accord Koh was driving, while masked men forcibly pulled Koh out of his car against his will and other abductors directed traffic and filmed the abduction.

To date, Koh remains missing and the identities of his abductors and their accomplices remain a mystery, despite the abundance of evidence of the abduction itself and the fact that Koh’s antagonists are well-known.

On May 15, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) submitted a communication to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) on behalf of Koh’s family.

FIDH also submitted a similar communication on behalf of Amri Che Mat, a social worker from Perlis, who is believed to have been abducted on November  24 last year.

“We helped Koh’s family to escalate this to the UN WGEID after these 100 days of no answers and no action by the authorities to account for such a shocking crime,” said Sevan Doraisamy, Suaram executive director.

Suaram, a member organisation of FIDH, has also joined the newly formed civil society coalition Citizen Action Group on Enforced Disappearance (CAGED).

CAGED spokesperson Thomas Fann added that the police’s failure to account for their startling lack of progress, the lack of transparency and the lack of sincere efforts to regularly and informatively update the family are of great concern.

“To make matters worse, they seem to be exploiting the abduction to investigate and potentially prosecute Raymond Koh and his family, friends and associates on alleged offences unrelated to the crime against Koh.”

Koh’s family members have become increasingly concerned about this lack of commitment to a fair, transparent and accountable investigation to secure Koh’s safe release and to bring his abductors and accomplices to justice.

As such, Koh’s family felt that they had no other recourse except to appeal to other organisations for help, including escalating Koh’s abduction to the UN as a suspected case of “enforced disappearance”.

She added that it is her duty to do all she can to find out what happened to Koh and to get him justice.

“I owe this to my husband and must ask the difficult questions even if I risk retaliation against me by powerful men.”

Since Koh’s case was submitted to the UN WGEID, the police have responded by summoning human rights activists who have assisted Koh’s family in this.

Sevan Doraisamy, Thomas Fann and Bersih activist Rama Ramanathan have been summoned by the police for questioning on May 24, at 10am at the police headquarters in Bukit Aman. They are being investigated under Section 505B of the Penal Code for making statements allegedly conducing to ‘public mischief’.

In responding to this police summons, Thomas Fann said that they will show up as requested by the police.

“However, I would think that in dealing with such a serious crime that has gone on for 100 days with no progress, shouldn’t the police be focusing on finding answers, instead of harassing those who have raised questions?”