The wife of a Malaysian pastor who was abducted six years ago has begun a civil case against the country’s government and police force in the High Court.

Susannah Koh is the wife of Raymond Koh, who was abducted in February 2017 by a group of 15 people in masks, who surrounded his car with seven blacked-out vehicles. Nothing is known of his fate or whereabouts since then, although Ms Koh and her supporters are convinced that the Government and police were complicit and hiding the truth.

The initial two days of proceedings ended on June 7 with testimony from witnesses to the abduction. Ms Koh told the charity Open Doors “I feel vindicated that we have been able to come so far and that our story is being heard… We are hopeful that we can get the justice that we want.”

In 2019 the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) issued the findings of an investigation into Raymond Koh’s disappearance. It concluded that it had been orchestrated by the Special Branch of Malaysia’s Police Department which is responsible for internal security and intelligence gathering for the government.

In response to the pressure, the government formed a task force to discover what had happened to him. The findings were originally due in late 2019 but were never released. A key part of Ms Koh’s lawsuit is for the findings of this report to be made public, along with details of her husband’s whereabouts.

Cho’s family believe he was disappeared due to the work of Raymond’s Christian charity Harapan Komuniti (Hope Community), which works with people with HIV/AIDS, recovering drug addicts, people who are homeless and single parents.

Susannah, who has taken on some of her husband’s work in the charity, says that her husband was open about his faith, but was not using the work to convert Muslims: “[There were] allegations that he was converting Muslims through the NGO that he set up… but there is no evidence of it.”

Malaysia is number 43 in Open Doors’ World Watch List, which ranks nations by the levels of persecution and discrimination experienced by its Christian population.

(Open Doors)