Ex-SB officer dismisses Koh, Amri task force report as 'biased'

Summary

• A former police Special Branch principal assistant director testifies before the Kuala Lumpur High Court today during proceedings for a civil suit by the family of Pastor Raymond Koh.

• Awaludin Jadid, formerly in charge of the Special Branch’s Extremism Division, says he disagrees with findings by a government special task force that investigated the disappearances of Koh and activist Amri Che Mat.

• He calls the report “biased” as the task force did not hear his side of the story.

A retired police Special Branch senior officer today dismissed the findings by a government special task force that investigated the disappearances of Amri Che Mat and Pastor Raymond Koh, calling it a “biased report”.

Testifying at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, Awaludin Jadid, formerly the principal assistant director of Special Branch’s Extremism Division (E2), criticised the task force for not calling him to testify and present his side of the story.

“I was never called to testify (before the task force).

“I disagree with the special task force's report. Please put it on record.

“It is a very biased report,” he said.

Awaludin, who retired from the police force in 2018, was testifying as a witness in a civil suit filed by Koh’s family against the government over the pastor’s enforced disappearance in February 2017.

He was referring to the Home Ministry’s Special Task Force (STF) classified report on the disappearance of both men between late 2016 and early 2017, which found that they may have been abducted by rogue cops.

Excerpts of the report classified under the Official Secrets Act 1972 were read out during an earlier proceeding in September 2024.

“(The STF) Found that the incident behind Amri and Koh may have been caused by the actions directly or indirectly of irresponsible rogue police officers who acted on their own individually or in a group.

“They acted on their own accord, together with outside religious groups.

“However, this is only my view,” former STF member Zamri Yahya reportedly testified before High Court judge Su Tian Joo on Sept 26.

Zamri, a former police Integrity and Standard Compliance Department director, was reading out an excerpt from the report.

For the record, the STF finding did not mention whether the rogue police officers were from the Special Branch or even from the Bukit Aman police headquarters.

Suhakam in 2019 ruled that Amri and Koh - who disappeared on Nov 24, 2016, and Feb 13, 2017 - were victims of enforced disappearance perpetrated by members of the Special Branch from Bukit Aman.

Enforced disappearance is the secret abduction or imprisonment of individuals with the backing of the state, followed by refusal to acknowledge the victim’s fate or whereabouts, to place the abductee or detainee outside the protection of the law.

The hearing before judge Su will resume tomorrow, where lawyer Jerald Gomez is expected to conclude his cross-examination of Awaludin.

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