KUALA LUMPUR: The wife of the missing activist Amri Che Mat said there was an element of negligence in the police investigation into her husband's disappearance eight years ago.
Norhayati Ariffin said this conclusion was drawn from a highly classified report by the special task force set up to investigate her husband's case, Free Malaysia Today reported.
"The task force said the police were negligent and incompetent as they failed to reclassify my husband's case as a kidnapping instead of a missing person's.
"The Attorney-General's Chambers instructed the police to classify the case as kidnapping after the Human Rights Commission Malaysia (Suhakam)'s inquiry concluded," she said.
Norhayati said this when testifying as a witness in her lawsuit against 21 individuals including the government before High Court judge Su Tiang Joo today.
She filed the suit on Nov 18, 2019, against the police, government and the then home minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, as well as the former head of the Special Branch's social extremism division, Awaludin Jadid.
She is seeking aggravated and exemplary damages.
The government had set up a task force in 2019 to investigate the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia's claim of police involvement in the disappearances of Amri. It was chaired by former High Court judge Datuk Abd Rahim Uda.
On May 9, 2023, High Court judge Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh ruled that the task force's report should be given to Norhayati and her lawyer.
However, the government filed an appeal against the order on June 7, the same year.
Amri, who is the founder of a non-governmental organisation, went missing after leaving his home in Kangar at 11.30pm on Nov 24, 2016.
His vehicle was found abandoned at a construction site at Bukit Chabang in Kangar.