KUALA LUMPUR: A lawyer representing a distraught mother seeking to regain custody of her three children who were taken away from her and converted to Islam, today made an impassioned plea at the High Court for her to be reunited with them.
"They have violated not only the rights of the mother but also that of the children, who have been deprived 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 to be deprived of her right to be with her children," lawyer A Srimurugan said during the hearing of a habeas corpus application involving the matter at the High Court here today.
The hearing involves an application by Loh Siew Hong to compel the return of her three children into her custody.
She has named Nazirah Nanthakumari Abdullah as the respondent and party with custody of her 14-year-old twin girls and a 10-year-old boy.
Loh has been unable to gain custody of her children despite having obtained a court order as far back as December 2019 giving her absolute control over them.
It was reported that the children had been handed over to the respondent by Loh's estranged husband, who is now in prison over a drug offence.
The children, who were born Hindus, had subsequently been converted to Islam by the Perlis religious authorities allegedly following the unilateral consent given by the father.
High Court Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah will deliver his judgment at 11am.
Meanwhile, a group of about 100 people from various Islamic non governmental organisations (NGO) gathered outside the court complex here to voice their concern over what would happen to the children's religious status if they are handed back to their Buddhist mother.
The three children were kept in the witness room as the proceedings went on next door.