BUTTERWORTH – The high-profile case of single mother Loh Siew Hong trying to regain custody of her three children from religious authorities have attracted not only curious onlookers but alleged scammers pretending to be lawyers and fundraisers.
In addition, Loh was allegedly being led by other parties in deciding the direction of her case.
Bagan Dalam assemblyman M. Satees, who is part of a team that is helping Loh, has lambasted those who have been portraying themselves as “lawyers”.
He added Loh is assisted by a legal team comprising Srimurugan Alagan, Shamsher Singh Thind and Gunamalar Joorindanjn.
“Loh is to decide on the next course of action. No one is pulling the strings here. Any decision is for her to make alone. No other organisations are involved in this.”
“Let the legitimate lawyers discuss the next course of action with their client. We don’t need bogus lawyers to throw spanners into the work.”
Satees had highlighted on his Facebook page that at least one person, who is not a lawyer, has been claiming to be part of the legal team.
“To clarify, this person has nothing to do with Loh’s case. And there are no other organisations that are part of the case to begin with. Loh has fought on her own since 2019, and we assisted her to get her children back when she came to us two weeks ago.”
He added that it is highly unethical and unprofessional for someone to hijack the issue and to turn it into a religious matter for their own vested interests.
He said there is no fundraising being conducted or endorsed by Loh.
“Even when some people offered cash assistance to ease the burden of her costs, Loh insisted that what she wanted was her children and nothing else.
“For the time being, let the mother and children enjoy their reunion after three years. Let them have some peace of mind. The children, especially the youngest, are elated to be with the mother. That’s what we wanted, when we started this.
After three years, Loh regained full custody of her twin daughters aged 14 and a son, 10.
Despite having two previous high court orders that ruled she had custody, Loh had a tricky path to reunification with her children.
Her three children were allegedly converted to Islam in 2020 in Perlis despite the apex court ruling out unilateral conversion of minors.
She also singled out individual police officers who were uncooperative, but after the case grew in prominence with the help of Satees, Tamil Kural chairman David Marshel together with support from Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy, Loh won her habeas corpus application yesterday.
Meanwhile, constitutional lawyer Datuk Bastian Pius Vendargon said that Loh has grounds to pursue a legal recourse if the controversial conversion needs to be challenged.
“It is up to her as the federal constitution is the supreme law of the land.”
Under Article 4 of the federal constitution, the federal law is the supreme law, superseding other customary or native laws, including shariah, he said.
“So, the plaintiff can apply for the conversion to be squashed. It is within her prerogative if she wants to.”
He said that the Federal Court ruling is binding to all, whether it is the Perlis religious authorities or individuals and it is applicable to the religious officials of other faiths.
Parties can also challenge the Federal Court ruling, which means there can be a legal revisit of the ruling of consent, but they must submit an application towards this end.
For now, there are no such applications, so the landmark reference remains as M. Indira Gandhi’s case, Bastian said.
In Loh’s case, the religious conversion was consented by her now former husband, who is currently serving a prison sentence for a narcotics charge in Kelantan.
He will remain in prison until November this year.
Meanwhile, lawyer Nizam Bashir said there is an existing court order where custody was awarded to Loh.
“Given that the order stands, it must be respected by all quarters. Consequently, it’s not surprising that the court ordered that the children be produced and released to the care of the mother. No party, to my mind, should circumvent the outcome of the order.” – The Vibes, February 22, 2022
