January hearing over declassifying report on activist's abduction

 

The Kuala Lumpur High Court has set Jan 16 next year to hear a judicial review to declassify a task force report into activist Amri Che Mat’s enforced disappearance in 2016.

Lawyer Larissa Ann Louis, who acted for Amri’s wife Norhayati Mohd Ariffin, confirmed the hearing date for the merits of the judicial review.

“The hearing date was fixed following the court granting leave to commence with the judicial review back on July 19, 2022,” the counsel told Malaysiakini when contacted this afternoon.

Norhayati’s judicial review seeks to quash the Official Secrets Act (OSA) classification in order to access the report to strengthen her related civil action against the police and the federal government over her husband’s disappearance five years ago.

On June 26, 2019, two months after the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) concluded that Amri (above) was a victim of enforced disappearance by the police, the Home Ministry formed a special task force to re-investigate the matter.

However, there was a lack of updates on the report, leading civil society group Citizens Against Enforced Disappearance (Caged) last year to urge the government to release the findings of the task force.

The task force was formed during the Pakatan Harapan administration headed by then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 2019.

Caged’s media statement that urged for the release of the findings was issued on April 2, 2021, during Muhyiddin Yassin’s Perikatan Nasional administration.

Following the 15th general election last month, the government is now led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who took over from Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

Suhakam inquiry

On April 3, 2019, Suhakam’s public inquiry concluded that Amri and pastor Raymond Koh, who vanished in 2016 and 2017 respectively, were victims of enforced disappearance.

The three-member panel unanimously concluded that the perpetrators were members of the Special Branch from police headquarters Bukit Aman in Kuala Lumpur.

Koh’s family also has an ongoing civil court action against the police and government over the pastor’s enforced disappearance.

In relation to Norhayati’s judicial review to declassify the task force report over her husband’s disappearance, she claimed the government refused to disclose the OSA-labeled findings as it would purportedly be against national interest.

She contended the findings are not only relevant to her ongoing related civil action but also contain information that would be of public interest as the findings concern the conduct of the police surrounding Amri’s disappearance.

She further claimed the report is not a suitable matter to be classified under the OSA. - Mkini