KUALA LUMPUR: Police have arrested a Russian couple who were recorded performing a bizarre street performance act using their baby as a prop.
Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Seri Mazlan Lazim said the husband, 28, and wife 27, were picked together with their four-month old daughter at Jalan Raja Abdullah today (Feb 4) at about 3pm.
The family, he said, was taken to Dang Wangi district police headquarters for further investigations under Section 31 (1) (a), Child Act 2001.
Mazlan stated that the police had decided to take action on the parents des[ite there being no police reports, as the video had gone viral since Sunday night and it had elements of child endangerment on the scene.
“They baby was with her parents when they arrested at Jalan Raja Abdullah, where they were also doing some sort of performance. The video, which was believed to be recorded on Feb 2 was taken at Bukit Bintang.
“We had taken the couple to Dang Wangi headquarters,” he told the New Straits Times.
As of press time (6pm), he said the couple were still having their respective statements being taken and that no decisions had been made on whether they will be detained or not.
Earlier, Mazlan told reporters that the family had entered the country through the Malaysia-Thailand border on Friday, as tourists.
“They were carrying out the activity to collect funds for their travel expenses. They had done the same thing in Thailand.
“We had also informed the Russian Embassy about the arrest,” he said during the Ops Selamat 14 campaign in conjunction with Chinese New Year at the Jalan Duta Tol Plaza.
On Saturday, Facebook user Zayl Chia Abdulla uploaded a video of the two woman and two men carrying out a street performance. The small crowd gathered around them were shocked and disturbed when they saw the man, who was holding the baby’s legs, started swinging her around vigorously for over a minute.
The baby, who was only wearing diapers at the time, did not seem to be crying or upset. One of the woman from the group had been recording the baby’s expression using her mobile device as the other two was seen sitting on the ground playing tribal music.
A sign could be seen placed in front of the “band”, with a note saying - “We are travelling around the world. Music, art, donation”.
Although the crowd disapproved and reacted negatively towards the performance, nobody seemed to intervene. A man witnessing the act could be heard in the video criticising the whole situation; “Bodohlah, mana boleh ini macam? (This is stupid, how can they be doing this?),” he was heard saying repeatedly.