CH A PT E R 1
SUHAKAM received a complaint from a group of civil society organisations and family
members of the missing individuals on their disappearances in April 2017. SUHAKAM
decided to hold a public inquiry into the disappearances and began hearing testimony
in October 2017. At the time of writing, SUHAKAM has concluded its inquiry into the
disappearance of Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat. SUHAKAM was unable to
begin the inquiry into the disappearance of Joshua and Ruth Hilmi in the year of review.
As for the disappearance of Pastor Raymond Koh, the inquiry was concluded on 8
December and a total of 16 witnesses testified before the inquiry. As for the Amri Che
Mat case, the inquiry concluded on 31 October and a total of 24 witnesses appeared
before the inquiry panel. All parties, including legal counsel for the family, Bar Council
lawyers, RMP officers and SUHAKAM officers assisting the Commission were instructed to
prepare submissions. The panel’s findings and recommendations will be made public
in due course.
The Way Forward
SUHAKAM will continue to protect human rights through its Complaints and Monitoring
Division. Several complaints which have yet to be completed in the year will be followedup on by the division in 2019. The report on the mass grave in Wang Kelian, Perlis, and
the public inquiry into the disappearance of individuals will be completed in 2019. The
division will also improve its monitoring by conducting full-fledged audits on detention
centres to ensure that human rights standards are complied with by the detaining
authorities. SUHAKAM is planning to empower the Complaints and Monitoring Division
by conducting visits to other detention centres in the region to learn from their best
practices on handling detainees.
SUHAKAM
ANNUAL REPORT 2018
83