KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has ordered three children who were taken away and unilaterally converted to Islam by a woman's estranged husband to be reunited with her immediately.
Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah ordered the children, who are now under the care of the Welfare Department, to be reunited with their mother Loh Siew Hong.
Loh, who was seated in the public gallery, broke into tears as she heard the decision.
Her children were not in court but placed in an adjoining room for witnesses, guarded by policemen, as the decision was delivered.
Earlier, Loh's lawyer A Srimurugan, made an impassioned plea for Loh to be reunited with her children.
He said Loh's rights had been violated while her children had 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 to be deprived of her right to be with her children," he said during the hearing of a habeas corpus application involving the matter.
The hearing involves an application by Loh who had sought the return of her three children into her custody.
She had 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 in 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 their father.
Meanwhile, a group of about 100 people from various Islamic non governmental organisations (NGOs) gathered outside the court complex here to voice their concern over what would have to the childrens religious status if they are handed back to the Buddhist mother.