Malaysia: Harassment toward Citizen Action Group on Enforced Disappearances (CAGED)
Event- Country
- Malaysia
- Initial Date
- May 24, 2017
- Event Description
Citizen Action Group on Enforced Disappearances (CAGED), was established on 5 May 2017. SUARAM holds the Secretariat of CAGED. Since its foundation, CAGED has issued statements and helped hold candle-light vigils to commemorate the disappeared across Malaysia. CAGED has issued statements calling on the Government of Malaysia to address the enforced disappearances of Amri Che Mat, Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his wife Ruth Sitepu, and Pastor Raymond Koh. In direct response to this, the Inspector-General of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar tweeted that the allegations were shocking, and called for the involved non-governmental organisations to be summoned for questioning. The police said "This is a serious allegation and we will not allow them to take this opportunity to make baseless accusations. (...) Don't try to 'spin' the situation by making it seem as though the authorities are involved". On 24 May 2017, Executive Director of SUARAM, Sevan Doraisamy, CAGED spokesperson, Thomas Fann, and Rama Ramanathan from Bersih 2.0 were summoned to clarify their claims that the cases were enforced disappearances under Section 505(B) of the Penal Code. The three HRDs have also been investigated under Section 504 of the Penal Code, which deals with intentional insult to provoke a breach of the peace and carries a penalty of two years imprisonment and a fine. The three, were summoned as witnesses, refused to answer many of the questions put to them, and instead responded they would only answer the questions in court. FORUM-ASIA firstly calls on the Government of Malaysia to cease the harassment of Sevan Doraisamy, Thomas Fann, and Rama Ramanathan, and all others involved with CAGED. Instead, the Government should prioritise the investigations into the disappearances of Amri Che Mat, Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his wife Ruth Sitepu, and Pastor Raymond Koh, and recognise these as enforced disappearance. Finally, the Government should immediately ratify the ICPPED without any further delay, and fulfil all obligations that come with it.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Censorship
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of association
- HRD
- NGO
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 3.139002999999997
Longitude: 101.686855
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 24 May 2017, Executive Director of SUARAM, Sevan Doraisamy, CAGED spokesperson, Thomas Fann, and Rama Ramanathan from Bersih 2.0 were summoned to clarify their claims that the cases were enforced disappearances under Section 505(B) of the Penal Code.