A human rights group argued that the disappearance of businesswoman Pamela Ling Yueh bears the hallmarks of an enforced disappearance, pointing to striking similarities with past abduction cases involving state actors in Malaysia.
In a detailed statement issued on May 11, Citizens Against Enforced Disappearances (CAGED) said the circumstances surrounding Ling’s April 9 abduction meet the criteria of an enforced disappearance under international definitions.
According to the group, Ling was abducted in broad daylight while en route to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters in Putrajaya.
“On April 9, 2025, on a workday, in broad daylight, an abduction squad using up to five vehicles abducted Pamela Ling Yueh from a Grab Car, minutes before it was due to arrive at the Putrajaya headquarters of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC),” CAGED said.
“There were at least eight perpetrators. After stopping the car, three of them removed Pamela from the car and took her away,” the statement continued.
Two of the abductors were identified as males in clothing marked with Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) insignia, while a third was a woman in police uniform.
The group also said the perpetrators took the Grab driver’s identity card, prompting him to report the incident to authorities.
No ransom has been demanded, and Ling has not been seen since.
Ling, 42, is a Sarawakian citizen residing in Singapore. She is married to Thomas Hah Tiing Siu, a businessman who was conferred the “Dato’ Sri” title by Pahang in 2013.
Both Ling and Hah have been linked to an ongoing corruption probe involving MACC and Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
CAGED noted that Ling had been extradited from Singapore in January for questioning by MACC.
“She was remanded for questioning for three days and released on January 11,” the group said, adding that during a previous visit to MACC, “an MACC deputy director ‘encouraged’ her to quickly resolve her divorce from Thomas.”
The group stressed that while police have reported interviewing witnesses and reviewing video footage, public confidence remains low due to the unresolved cases of other missing persons.
“In this respect, PDRM has done better than it did in the enforced disappearances of Raymond Koh, Amri Che Mat, Joshua Hilmy and Ruth Sitepu,” CAGED said. “But the public remains wary.”
CAGED cited findings by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), which previously concluded that the four were victims of enforced disappearances and pointed to police complicity and failure to act.
“The government even continues to conceal the report of the ‘Special Task Force’ it cobbled together to look into Suhakam’s terrifying findings,” the group said.
Drawing parallels with past cases, CAGED emphasized that eight years ago, “on a workday, in broad daylight, in a metropolis, an abduction squad using seven vehicles abducted Raymond [Koh]. The demeanour of the abductors, and other factors, indicated they had training and experience in policing.”
The group added that police have consistently failed to recover key evidence. “PDRM never found Raymond’s car… PDRM never found the car owned by Special Branch operative Saiful Bahari, implicated in the abductions of Koh and Amri,” it said. “PDRM never found Saiful – although the Attorney General’s Chambers is defending him in civil suits springing from the abductions!”
CAGED reiterated the international definition of enforced disappearance as “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.”
CAGED maintained that, in the absence of meaningful action in the unresolved cases of Raymond Koh, Amri Che Mat, Joshua Hilmy, and Ruth Sitepu, all abductions in Malaysia should reasonably be treated as potential enforced disappearances unless the police can definitively prove otherwise.
“In Malaysia, on a workday, in broad daylight, in a metropolis, a person can be disappeared by an abduction squad and never be found,” the group said. “In the face of the indifference of the Home Minister, the Law Minister, the Prime Minister, and the Attorney General, what else can we conclude?”
