State actors are not afraid of what they did to Koh, Amri By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy

Malaysiakini : “The logical inference drawn from the totality of the evidence is that the abduction involves state actors, whether acting directly or indirectly, or with the knowledge, acquiescence, or support of others within the police infrastructure (in which) the defendant’s inability to provide a credible alternative explanation further supports this conclusion.”

 - Judge Su Tiang Joo

COMMENT | The state actors involved in the kidnapping of Pastor Raymond Koh and social activist Amri Che Mat are probably inconvenienced by this verdict but are not threatened by it.

These people are cut from the same cloth as the state actors, some of whom are within the state security apparatus, who protect the wanted kidnapper of M Indira Gandhi’s child.

You have to understand something. The state actors who kidnapped Koh and Amri probably believe that what they did was righteous and sanctioned by their superiors, enabled by the religious apparatus, and you better believe there is enough plausible deniability to cover the behinds of various political operatives.

Who had the power to order a tactical squad to kidnap Malaysians for whatever reasons? Who had the authority to issue such commands?

Who felt secure enough that their crime would go unsanctioned by the former Umno state? Who had the political influence to concoct such a manoeuvre, which bypasses the traditional state security apparatus and mete out whatever fate had befallen these people?

CCTV footage of the abduction of Raymond Koh

Whoever these people are, they were confident that the narratives of the state security apparatus would shield them from whatever repercussions of the former Umno state and, here is the important part, may very well shield them from the sanctions from successive governments.

Shaggadag : "The logical inference drawn from the totality of the evidence is that the abduction involves state actors, whether acting directly or indirectly, or with the knowledge, acquiescence, or support of others within the police infrastructure (in which) the defendant’s inability to provide a credible alternative explanation further supports this conclusion.” 

Thaya, this is a clear and unambiguous finding of fact by a court of law. It waits to be seen how the Court of Appeal will deal with this. It is chiseled in legal granite that no appellate court will interfere in a finding of fact unless it is so perverse and unsupported by evidence. 

That is not the case here. Therefore the question everyone should be asking themselves is not whether the government will cough up the damages awarded but whether they will return Pastor Koh and Che Amri to their respective families 

Let them say they can't, and the only way to elicit this response is to force them to "produce the bodies" by way of an application for a writ of habeas corpus. After all, the stage has been more than adequately set by Judge Su. Let the fun begin.

Read it all here.......