Suhakam commissioner and former Court of Appeal judge Mah Weng Kwai said he was informed that police had arrested a suspect in the case, which would affect the inquiry.
Under Section 12 of the Suhakam Act, an inquiry shall not proceed if the subject matter is part of a court proceeding.
Mah said he was informed that the suspect, Lam Chang Nam, who was arrested on Jan 12, was charged with kidnapping in a Petaling Jaya court yesterday.
“We do not know if he is still being remanded or he made bail as there have been no reports or updates about this.
“We are taken by surprise by this new development. We had no inkling of this development until yesterday,” said Mah, on day 12 of the public inquiry into Koh’s disappearance.
Checks on the suspect revealed that Lam worked as a part-time Uber driver, and had claimed trial in March last year to a charge of extorting Koh’s son, Jonathan Koh Szu Hao, of RM30,000 for the purpose of releasing his father.
The Suhakam inquiry seeks to establish whether the disappearance of Koh and three others were cases of enforced or involuntary disappearance, as defined under the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
The other three missing persons are activist Amri Che Mat, and Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his wife Ruth.
Koh, 63, was abducted from his car by a group of more than 10 men in a convoy of vehicles on Feb 13 last year.
CCTV footage showed at least three black SUVs were involved in the abduction. Many speculated that his abduction might have been connected to his alleged attempts to spread Christianity, although his family has dismissed such claims.
‘Terms of reference’
Koh’s family lawyer, Gurdial Singh, questioned the decision to stop the inquiry.
“Our remit is on questions about enforced disappearance.
“Even assuming there is a person accused participating in this, our questions are larger and we ask if there was any acquiescence of state authorities. We are looking purely at the terms of reference,” he said.
He said the inquiry was also to find out whether there had been state involvement in Koh’s disappearance.
“We have to pause before we decide if we need to suspend or continue this inquiry,” he said.
Another lawyer, Andrew Khoo from the Bar Council, said all parties must accept the decision.
“We have to be realistic as the law suggests the remit of the commission is superseded by legal proceedings,” he said, but added that there were still issues of enforced disappearance involving others.
Meanwhile, lawyer Jerald Gomez said Lam’s arrest was not something new.
“So we ask for time to deliberate and look at the charge. What makes it worse was that the family was not informed of this update from police,” he said.