In a public inquiry into the disappearance of Ruth and her husband, pastor Joshua Hilmy, Philip Koh expressed concern over Suhakam’s difficulties in obtaining evidence from the AGC.
This comes after Suhakam officer Simon Karunagaram today shared that the commission’s secretariat had reached out to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Maybank, Maxis and the AGC to assist in investigations.
He said Suhakam had received feedback from all agencies, except for the AGC.
On Jan 11, the inquiry panel was told that the AGC had ordered some evidence to be withheld, claiming that giving the information to third parties could hinder efforts to trace the missing couple and potential suspects.
According to Simon, Suhakam had written to the AGC on Jan 19 to request for further information on the couple’s disappearance. They received a reply on Feb 2, requesting for more time due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A second letter was sent on March 24, “but the matter is still pending till today”.
“We were informed that they are still planning to discuss and decide on the request made by Suhakam,” said Simon.
Koh criticised the AGC’s “blanket” refusal to disclose information, saying it should assist in seeking the truth behind the couple’s disappearance.
“Saying it may jeopardise the investigation sounds more like the executive is unwilling to get to the bottom of the matter in a manner that may be helpful for the aggrieved families,” he said.
Koh called for another letter to be written to attorney-general Idrus Harun for his office to reconsider its decision, failing which his clients may seek declaratory relief, with the AGC as the respondent.
Koh also took issue with the police and the MCMC’s “inability” to trace the account holder of an email, which allegedly linked federal minister Khairy Jamaluddin to the disappearance of Ruth and Joshua.
Last year, witness Selvakumar Peace John Harris claimed that, in several emails, Khairy — who was then the youth and sports minister — had warned Joshua to leave Malaysia and that Khairy had several email exchanges with the missing pastor.
Khairy has since denied the allegations, saying that he did not personally know the pastor or the witness.
Stressing that he would not like to assume that “VVIPs” were involved in the case, Koh noted that the emails were sent by someone under the pseudonym “Wifi Gurl”.
“As I understand, the MCMC, after their initial reluctance, now say they are unable to trace or that they don’t have the facility to do so, because ‘wifi gurl’ is registered as a Yahoo account.”
He said there was no reason why the MCMC and police could not get to the bottom of the email account holder’s real identity.
“It is our concern that whoever operated that email had something to do with the missing couple,” he said.
Koh added that the Immigration Department had not shown any proof to back its claims that Ruth had left the country voluntarily.
Joshua, a Malay Muslim who converted to Christianity, and his wife Ruth have been missing for over four years. They were last seen on Nov 30, 2016.