Malaysia (MNN) — This week has brought a new development in the case of Pastor Raymond Koh, who was abducted from the streets of Malaysia in 2017.
Koh’s wife, Susanna, has been locked in a legal battle since 2020 to discover what really happened to Koh. In November 2025, she won a significant victory in court. After years of the truth being hidden, a judge finally ruled that the government was indeed involved in Koh’s abduction.
The court then ordered the government to pay the equivalent of millions of dollars in damages into a trust fund for the Koh family. On top of that, the government is to pay a daily fine of around $2,500 until Pastor Koh’s whereabouts are fully disclosed.
(Image courtesy of Joe Gratz/Flickr)
However, “Before the sun was down that day, the government had announced, ‘We’re going to appeal this,’” says Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs, USA.
A delay after another ruling
Fast forward to this week. On January 26, 2026, a different judge ruled that the government can postpone its payment until the appeal process is resolved.
Nettleton says there is a logic to the judge’s decision, yet, if you look closer, there’s a hole.
“What the judge said is, ‘If the government pays Susanna Koh all this money and she goes and spends it, but then the government would win the appeal, she would have no way of paying back that money. So let’s just wait to pay until after the appeal is heard,’” says Nettleton.
“But the interesting thing is that the original verdict does not just hand all this money to Susanna Koh. It actually puts it in a trust that cannot be dispersed until [Koh’s] whereabouts are determined. So that sort of seems to undermine what the judge said in awarding this stay.”
Stand with the Koh family
Keep the Koh family in your prayers as Susanna’s lawsuit against the Malaysian government and the police continues. Pray for a swift decision in the government’s appeal.
“This prolongs their suffering, because they have to now go back to the court and keep talking about the abduction, and they still don’t know ‘What happened? Is he alive? Is he dead?'” says Nettleton. “They still have so many questions that haven’t been answered.”
(Graphic courtesy of VOM USA)
Yet despite this setback in the appeal process, God is at work!
“The incredible hope is still the fact that Susanna Koh won a court verdict against the government. We still need to say, ‘Praise the Lord that there was this victory. Praise the Lord that the truth was revealed, that it did come out in a court of law in Malaysia,’” says Nettleton.
VOM USA has stood with the Kohs throughout their legal battle. You can watch a video of Susanna telling her story at persecution.com.
“This is an incredibly hard road that she has walked, and yet she testifies to the faithfulness of God, to His ability to stand with her,” says Nettleton.
Header photo: Pastor Raymond Koh, center, with his wife Susanna and their family. (Photo courtesy of The Voice of the Martyrs USA)
