KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 — Christian Federation of Malaysia chairman Archbishop Julian Leow Beng Kim today called on all churches in Malaysia to pray for pastor Raymond Koh for the next two weekends to mark the 4th anniversary of the mysterious abduction of Pastor Raymond Koh.
Koh was abducted on Feb 13, 2017, in what has been deemed an enforced disappearance.
Leow in a statement today, also urged Christians to pray for other victims of “enforced disappearances”, namely social activist Amri Che Mat, and pastor Joshua Hilmy together with his wife Ruth Sitepu — all of whom disappeared in 2016.
“For the next two weekends — February 6 to 7 and February 13 to 14 — we ask all churches to remember and pray for Pastor Raymond, Amri Che Mat, Joshua Hilmy, Ruth Sitepu and their families. May they know that we stand in solidarity with them on their continuous journey of uncertainty.
“Covid-19 has forced us to experience this pain of separation from family and friends for almost a year now. Some of us have not hugged or seen our loved ones since the pandemic started. We have, however, some measure of comfort in knowing where they are and the assurance that they are safe,” he said.
Leow stressed that all four missing cases are a national human rights issue that the country should endeavour to solve in order to lessen the suffering of the victim’s families.
In 2019, Malaysia’s Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) had concluded that the police’s Special Branch was responsible for the disappearances of Amri and Koh.
At the time, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Abdul Hamid Bador criticised Suhakam for causing a negative outlook of the police, while former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad promised renewed investigations to begin later that year.
However, little progress in the investigations has been made publicly available.
