PETALING JAYA: Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi says Jakarta will raise with Putrajaya the case of Ruth Sitepu, who went missing with her husband Pastor Joshua Hilmy in 2016.
Indonesian news portal Kompas yesterday quoted Retno as saying Jakarta would do its best to probe the case, adding that his ministry had sent a letter to the Indonesian police to work with their Malaysian counterparts to investigate her disappearance.
“This issue will be presented. I will raise it again with the Malaysian foreign minister to get the attention of the Malaysian government and authorities,” he said, adding that the virtual meeting with Hishammuddin Hussein would be held today.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian foreign ministry’s citizen protection director Judha Nugraha said Jakarta had sent a diplomatic note to Putrajaya over the matter.
“We are also working with the Malaysian and Indonesian immigration departments. It’s recorded that Ruth did not make any border crossing from Malaysia to Indonesia,” he said.
He added that there had been no progress on the probe, based on communications between the police forces of both countries.
Ruth, from Indonesia, and Joshua, a Malay-Muslim who converted to Christianity, have been missing for over three years. They were last seen on Nov 30, 2016.
Indonesian authorities have been following the Malaysian Human Rights Commission’s (Suhakam) public inquiry into the couple’s disappearance.
Sitepu’s younger sister, Ram Ram Elisabeth, made a personal appeal to the Malaysian and Indonesian governments to help find her sister at a webinar titled “Claiming for State Protection in Enforced Disappearance Case of Indonesian Citizen in Malaysia” last week.