This is shocking!!

A police personnel investigating the disappearance of Pastor Raymond Koh had remarked that the latter’s abduction was similar to a police operation, the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) public hearing was told today.

Witness Roeshan Celestine Gomez said the investigating officer (IO) from the Kelana Jaya police station had made the remark when the witness’ police report on the incident was lodged.

“He said not to worry and that it looked very much like the modus operandi of a police operation,” Gomez said during the public hearing in Kuala Lumpur.

“(The IO) said it happened (during) broad daylight, it was very quick… He said the fact someone was taking a video, (would) fit the police operation method.”

The chairperson of the hearing panel, Suhakam commissioner Mah Weng Kwai, cautioned that this is all hearsay at the moment.

Gomez was the first witness in the Suhakam hearing on the disappearances of four individuals since November last year.

Koh was abducted on Feb 13 in Petaling Jaya. A video recording of the incident depicted him being taken by masked men on a busy road.

Gomez had stumbled upon the scene while on the way to a funeral.

He was the driver of a white Myvi which can be seen reversing from the scene in the unedited version of the CCTV footage.

In today’s hearing, Gomez said he reversed his car when a man, seen in the video running towards his car, angrily motioned for him to move away.

The 25-year-old said the abduction was like a scene from a movie, and that the suspected abductors were dressed like a SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) team.

Gomez also revealed that a few days before he was called by police to come for an identification parade on July, his car had been broken into, and a bag containing documents – a photocopy of his IC, some work files, and a witness statement he had prepared for Suhakam – had been stolen.

The car was broken into while he was out for dinner in Kota Damansara.

At the time, Gomez said he did not feel anything suspicious and did not lodge a police report over the matter.

However, he said a month later he found the bag lodged into the gate of his home in Sungai Buloh.

“My heart sank… I thought it could have been filled with a bomb or a severed head,” he said.

Upon inspection, he said he found all the contents that were originally in the bag, except for a plastic file which was used to keep his documents.

“The documents had been dumped into the bag, but they took the file.”

This incident Gomez said, left his family shaken, although they did not lodge a police report over the matter.

Previously, the last reported development in Koh’s case was on July 25 when then inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said the pastor’s abduction was linked to a group in southern Thailand.

On June 17, police gunned down a 41-year-old arms and drugs smuggler in Kampung Weng Dalam, Alor Setar, Kedah. After the shootout, police also arrested three suspected syndicate members, aged between 30 and 60, as well as the prime suspect’s widow.

Among the items recovered at the suspect’s home later included a photo believed to be that of the pastor’s house, photos believed to be that of his two vehicles, and a vehicle licence plate bearing the number ST 5515 D, which was the number of the Honda Accord that Koh was driving when he was taken.

Besides Koh, Suhakam is also looking into the disappearances of activist Amri Chemat, Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his wife Ruth Hilmy.

According to its terms of reference, the inquiry will determine whether the four individuals are victims of “enforced disappearances” as defined under the International Convention for Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances (ICPPED).

ICPPED defines enforced disappearance as the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the state or by persons, or groups of persons, acting with the authorisation, support or acquiescence of the state.

The instrument was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006. Malaysia is not a party to the ICPPED.

The inquiry will also establish if there were cases of involuntary disappearances in breach of laws.

If this was indeed the case, the inquiry will attempt to identify the persons or agencies responsible and whether there were administrative directives, procedures or arrangements which contributed to such breaches.

Thus far, Suhakam has recorded statements from 35 individuals.