Kuala Lumpur: The Indonesian Embassy reportedly called for Malaysian police to step up their investigation into missing couple Joshua Hilmy and Ruth Sitepu, after a Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) inquiry found the previous investigation to have been insufficient.
Free Malaysia Today reported that the embassy called for the Malaysian government to comply with Suhakam’s recommendations to conduct a “thorough investigation and bring the perpetrator(s) to justice”.
“We urge the Malaysian government not to rest until the case is solved as Ruth’s family and members of the public deserve to know the truth,” the embassy was quoted as saying.
The news portal also quoted Ruth’s siblings, Ram Ram Elisabeth and Iman Sitepu, as saying: “If she is indeed dead, please return her remains to us. It is the only right, decent thing to do”.
Earlier, Suhakam was reported as saying that the Hilmys were likely victims of an enforced disappearance, with the “acquiescence” of the police.
Suhakam’s inquiry, overseen by a three-man panel that was led by former judge Datuk Seri Mohd Hishamudin Md Yunus, surmised that authorities failed to investigate the case “diligently and seriously” and had hampered the progress of the investigation.
However, it said that there was no evidence to show that “agents of the state” were involved in the Hilmys’ abduction.
The Hilmys were reported missing on March 6, 2017 but news reports said they were last seen nearly four months earlier on November 30, 2016. Hishamudin reportedly linked the couple’s enforced disappearance to Joshua’s proselytisation of Christianity to Muslims in Malaysia as well as sensitive posts on social media.
Joshua was born a Muslim but had converted to Christianity in Singapore, in 2003.
Separately, Free Malaysia Today (FMT) 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”.
“According to Ruth’s brother Imam Sitepu’s testimony, he said the IO told him not to report Ruth’s disappearance to the embassy.”
