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Court orders cops to hand SOP documents to wife of missing activist
The wife of social activist Amri Che Mat succeeded in her appeal to access police documents relating to the standard operating procedure (SOP) in investigating his disappearance nearly six years ago.
The Court of Appeal this afternoon allowed Norhayati Mohd Ariffin’s appeal, giving the police 14 days from today to hand over to her the SOP documentation in the probe into Amri’s disappearance on Nov 14, 2016.
She sought the SOP documents in order to...
The wife of social activist Amri Che Mat succeeded in her appeal to access police documents relating to the standard operating procedure (SOP) in investigating his disappearance nearly six years ago.
The Court of Appeal this afternoon allowed Norhayati Mohd Ariffin’s appeal, giving the police 14 days from today to hand over to her the SOP documentation in the probe into Amri’s disappearance on Nov 14, 2016.
She sought the SOP documents in order to help the Kuala Lumpur High Court ascertain whether the police’s investigation into Amri’s disappearance is lawful.
She seeks to use these documents to bolster her main legal action (pending before the High Court) over the police’s alleged failure to conduct a proper investigation into Amri’s disappearance.
The police have relied on these SOP documents to justify the validity and propriety of their investigation into Amri’s disappearance.
In September last year, the High Court denied Norhayati’s discovery application for the police SOP documents, on grounds that the release of such documents would allegedly be injurious to public interest under Section 36 of the Government Proceedings Act 1956.
‘Public interest’ justification untenable
During online proceedings today, a three-person Court of Appeal bench chaired by judge Has Zanah Mehat ruled that there is merit in the appeal.
She said the bench - also comprised judges Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and See Mee Chun - disagreed with the lower court’s finding that disclosure of the SOP would be injurious to the public interest.
Has Zanah noted that the police failed to provide the opinion of the home minister as evidence of the contention that such SOP disclosure would be injurious to the public interest.
“There was also nothing to indicate the (SOP) documents are classified under the Official Secrets Act (1972),” she ruled.
Has Zanah also noted that the discovery bid was not general in nature but very specific to the SOP and protocol for a police investigation into missing persons.
“We order the act (police to hand over SOP to Norhayati) to be done in 14 days (from today),” she told senior federal counsel Zetty Zurina Kamaruddin, who represented the authorities.
A legal team headed by Malik Imtiaz Sarwar acted for Norhayati.
On April 3, 2019, Suhakam concluded that Amri was a victim of enforced disappearance.
Amri, an alleged syiah follower and proselytiser, disappeared on the evening of Nov 24, 2016, in Kangar, Perlis.
Norhayati’s main legal action named 21 entities and individuals as defendants.
Besides the police and the government, among the defendants listed are the home minister (who is not named), former home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, former inspector-generals of police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar and Mohamad Fuzi Harun, as well as the former head of Special Branch’s social extremism division, Awaludin Jadid.
The civil suit is fixed for a four-day hearing from June 19, next year.
She also has a pending separate legal action before the Kuala Lumpur High Court to compel the release of the Official Secrets Act (OSA)-classified findings of a task force report into the social activist’s 2016 enforced disappearance.
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