Joshua Hilmy received death threats, in-law says
SUHAKAM INQUIRY | Joshua Hilmy had received death threats, according to his brother-in-law.
Testifying at a public inquiry on Joshua and Ruth Hilmy's disappearance, the latter's youngest brother Iman Sitepu (above), 39, said he had heard about the threats from Joshua's adoptive father Bebas Bagun...
SUHAKAM INQUIRY | Joshua Hilmy had received death threats, according to his brother-in-law.
Testifying at a public inquiry on Joshua and Ruth Hilmy's disappearance, the latter's youngest brother Iman Sitepu (above), 39, said he had heard about the threats from Joshua's adoptive father Bebas Bagun.
"(In March 2015) Bagun told me that Joshua said 'people want to kill us'," he testified.
Iman, who is an Indonesian national, said Joshua (photo) and Bebas often communicated via telephone.
Asked by Suhakam commissioner Hishamuddin Yunus why a police report was not lodged, the 39-year-old replied that it was not unusual that there were "bad people" making such threats.
Iman is the seventh witness who was called to testify before the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) public hearing on Joshua and Ruth's disappearance.
Earlier, his sister Ram Ram told the inquiry that police had urged the family not to alert the Indonesian embassy regarding the couple's disappearance.
Joshua and Ruth were last seen on Nov 30, 2016, and reported missing on March 6, 2017.
Indonesian NGO mulls to raise disappearance to president
Meanwhile, an Indonesian NGO, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), will consider bringing the matter surrounding the disappearance of the couple to their president Joko Widodo.
Kontras coordinator Yati Andriyani said they would likely inform the Indonesian president if there were no progress after the inquiry.
"We have already gone to the ministry of foreign affairs because they are our representatives who have diplomacy with Malaysia.
"We will wait until the inquiry is over as we respect the Malaysian authorities.
"But after this, if there is no progress, we will consider taking this issue to the president," she told the media when met outside Suhakam's office.
She urged both countries to monitor the case as there are no new leads after three years of the couple's disappearance.
