PUTRAJAYA, Dec 11 — The Court of Appeal wants the government to produce the classified special task force report over the disappearance of activist Amri Che Mat for the court to assess the report’s content.
Justice Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said, who chaired the three-man panel, made the order to enable the court to decide whether the report’s content would put national security and police at risk.
The panel, also comprising Justices Datuk Hashim Hamzah and Datuk Azizul Azmi Adnan, made the order during the hearing of the government’s appeal against the decision of a High Court in granting the limited release of the report, which is classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1972, to Amri’s wife.
Earlier, Justice Azizul said he and his fellow judges would go through the document in their chambers without the presence of parties.
“Is there any reason why the document cannot be made available to us or for us to look at the document in camera without disclosing the document to the respondent,” he asked senior Federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly@Alwi, who is appearing for the government.
Ahmad said he would produce the document only for the judges and would comply with the OSA Act procedures in handling it to the judges.
Justice Kamaludin then fixed December 13 for case management before the Court of Appeal deputy registrar for the appeal.
In today’s online proceeding, the court heard submissions from Ahmad, who argued the High Court was wrong to make an order for limited disclosure of the report to Amri’s wife Norhayati Mohd Ariffin.
He said the High Court Judge did not order the report to be produced before him for the judge to examine it.
On May 9 this year, High Court Judge Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh allowed Norhayati’s judicial review application and ordered the limited release of the report to her for her to use in the civil suit she filed in November 2019 against 21 parties, including the government and the police over the alleged failure to effectively investigate her husband’s alleged abduction.
He also ordered that Norhayati and her lawyers be prohibited from disclosing the report to any third parties.
Norhayati’s lawyer A. Surendra Ananth told the court the trial of his client’s civil suit will resume on February 29 next year before the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.
— Bernama
