The Kuala Lumpur High Court has granted single mother Loh Siew Hong custody of her three children, who were taken away from her and unilaterally converted to Islam by her ex-husband.

Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah today ordered the children - a pair of twin girls aged 14, and a boy aged 10, to be released from the custody of the Welfare Department, after hearing the habes corpus application by Loh seeking the return of her three children into her custody.

According to the New Straits Times, 34-year-old Loh, who works as a chef in Genting Highlands, broke down when the verdict was read out.

Earlier, Loh's lawyer A Srimurugan had reportedly pleaded to the court to return the children to her, as they had been unjustly been deprived the love and care of their biological mother.

"I don't see this happening in any other country, where the mother doesn't even get to see her own children.

"I can understand if the mother has a criminal tendency or history of hurting her child, but this is not the case here. There is absolutely no reason for her (Loh) to be deprived of her right to be with her children," the lawyer reportedly said.

Loh, a Hindu Chinese, obtained a divorce from her husband Nagashwaran Muniandy on March 19, 2019, and was awarded sole custody of her children by the High Court.

However, she had been unable to be with her children the last three years, after Nagashwaran, who's currently in a Kelantan prison for drug-related offences, took them away and later unilaterally converted them into Islam in Perlis.

He was reportedly aided by one Nazirah Nanthakumari Abdullah, who runs an NGO in Penang in the conversion. Nazirah was also named as a respondent in Loh's suit.

Following the brouhaha surrounding the matter, the Perlis Religious Department has claimed that state laws allow unilateral conversions, which clearly goes against the Federal Court's previous ruling that both parents must consent to such conversions, in with the Federal Constitution.


Source: NST
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