Ruth Hilmy’s sister, Ram Ram Elisabeth Sitepu (left), and her younger brother Iman Sitepu holding a picture of Ruth and her husband Joshua Hilmy during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur March 4, 2020. — Picture by Miera Zulyana
KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 – Malaysian pastor Joshua Hilmy and his Indonesian wife Ruth Hilmy who went missing in 2016 were likely victims of an enforced disappearance due to their religious activities, according to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam).
However, the three-member panel that led the public inquiry said it found no evidence to show that “agents of the state” were involved in the Hilmys abduction, unlike in the cases of social activist Amri Che Mat and Pastor Raymond Koh, two news portals reported today.
“The enforced disappearance was carried by person or persons unknown with the acquiescence of the Royal Malaysian Police as the agent of the state.
“However, it is the panel’s finding and a balance of probability the disappearance of both Joshua and Ruth are involuntary in nature,” former judge Datuk Seri Mohd Hishamudin Md Yunus who led the three-member panel was quoted as saying by Malaysiakini today.
The news portal also reported Hishamudin linking the couple’s enforced disappearance to Joshua’s proselytisation of Christianity to Muslims in Malaysia as well as sensitive posts on social media.
The Suhakam inquiry panel noted that Joshua was born a Muslim but converted to Christianity in Singapore in 2003.
Separately, Free Malaysia Today quoted Hishamudin as saying that the Hilmys “involuntary disappearance breached the laws of Malaysia” and added that the authorities had not only failed to investigate the case “diligently and seriously” but had even “hampered the progress”.
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