Kuala Lumpur’s High Court has suspended a payment of over RM37 million ($9.4m) to the family of an abducted pastor, citing concerns over the government’s finances.

Pastor Raymond Koh Keng was abducted in 2017 and is widely feared to be dead.

Prior to his disappearance, he had run an HIV/AIDS and anti-addiction refuge in Malaysia, where it is illegal to "convert" anyone from the Muslim-majority population. 

In 2024, the High Court ruled that police officers were involved in his abduction, corroborating eyewitness accounts of 15 men emerging from three black SUVs, who appeared to be highly trained. A payment of RM37 million was pledged to his family after a legal battle of almost nine years.

The High Court’s "stay of enforcement" now means that the payment will not proceed – even though the existing ruling required it to be held on trust until Koh’s whereabouts were ascertained.

Justice Mahazan Mat Taib ruled that there were “special circumstances” warranting the stay, to prevent “financial risk” to the government.

Pastor Koh’s wife, Susanna Liew, said the latest ruling was “profoundly troubling” and amounts to a reversal of the law.

“To now deprive me of the very sums lawfully awarded to me compounds the injustice,” she said.