Court orders three 'mualaf' siblings to be returned to their mother

KUALA LUMPUR - The High Court has ordered the Welfare Services Department (JKM) to immediately surrender three children who are under its care to their mother.

Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah made the decision after allowing a habeas corpus application by single mother Loh Siew Hong, 34, on Monday.

In his decision, Sequerah said the court was satisfied that Loh was granted the sole custody, care and control of her children through a High Court order dated March 31, 2021.

During the proceeding, Loh’s counsel A.Srimurugan submitted that in line with the previous court order, the three siblings should have been returned to their mother.

“The respondents’ action in controlling the children could be seen as an act of disrespecting the court’s decision.

“This does not have to do with religion or conflict involving the shariah law, but the compliance of such court orders,” he said.

Meanwhile, lawyer Aidil Khalid who represented the first respondent, Nazirah Nanthakumar Abdullah said his client should not have been named as a respondent in Loh’s application since the children were no longer in her custody as they were now under the care of JKM.

He added that Loh, herself had consented to her children being placed under the care of the department.

On Feb 13, Loh filed a writ of habeas corpus against Nazirah who was a senior preacher at the Hidayah Centre Foundation and the parties currently detaining her three children.eeeee

In the application, Loh claimed that although she obtained sole custody, care and control of her children, she was still unable to meet them.

This, Loh claimed was because her twin daughters aged 14 and her son, 10, were taken away from her by her ex-husband M.Nagahswaran.

The single mother said her children were under the control of the first respondent at an NGO centre in Penang and that she was not allowed to meet them.

She said her children was then transferred to Perlis and placed under the care of the respondents.

Loh said the respondents’ action to keep her children without her permission was a form of unlawful detention (habeas corpus).

According to her lawyer, Nagahswaran is now serving jail time for a criminal offence.

The couple separated in March 2019, and in the same year, the man was said to have taken away the children from Loh, and secretly converted them and placed them under JKM’s care.