PETALING JAYA: The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia's (Suhakam) claim that police were behind the disappearance of Pastor Raymond Koh and activist Amri Che Mat two years ago must be supported by evidence.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the allegation that Special Branch officers had conducted the abduction is currently hearsay.
He said the government will allow a special task force to be set up to probe the allegation, as urged by Suhakam, provided that the commission can substantiate its claims.
"If Suhakam can provide concrete evidence to show the Special Branch were involved in their disappearance, then we can have a special task force to investigate the case," he said when asked to comment on calls for an investigation into Special Branch after Suhakam's report suggested that the department was behind the disappearances of the two.
Suhakam today had announced its findings of an inquiry into Amri and Koh’s disappearances, which it termed an 'enforced disappearance' caused by Bukit Aman.
Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir was also asked whether it would be a conflict of interest if Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamed Fuzi Harun was asked to investigate the claims, as he was the Special Branch head at the time of the disappearances.
The prime minister said Fuzi will be retiring soon so his successor could take up the investigation, if necessary.
"He (Fuzi) is going to retire soon. So let him retire first... We will have another IGP to investigate after that," he said.
Dr Mahathir also said the two incidents took place during the previous government.
"We don’t know of many things which happened during the previous government; many things are still kept hidden from us," he said.
Suhakam had conducted an inquiry into the disappearances of Koh and Amri, which took place over 21 days and heard 16 witnesses, and ended on Dec 8.