Orang Asli convert loses appeal to set aside order to hand over child to ex-non-Muslim husband

PUTRAJAYA: A Orang Asli mother who converted to Islam lost her appeal in the Federal Court yesterday to set aside a habeas corpus order requiring her to hand over her 10-year-old daughter to her former husband who is a non-Muslim.

A three-member panel of judges comprising Justices Datuk Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal, Datuk Abu Bakar Jais and Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil dismissed the 37-year-old woman’s appeal.

In delivering the court’s unanimous decision, Justice Harmindar said evidence before the court showed that the 44year-old father had de facto custody of the child for four years until she was taken away by the appellant (mother).

He also said it was the court’s observation that the ruling would not affect the ongoing custody proceedings in the High Court in Kuantan.

Justice Harmindar also made an order that the identities of the parents and child should remain anonymous and not be published by any parties.

Earlier yesterday, the panel also dismissed the mother’s application to adduce fresh evidence.

In her application, the woman claimed that the counsel who represented her in the High Court was incompetent.

On May 25 last year, the High Court in Kuantan allowed the father’s habeas corpus application and ordered the child to be returned to him pending the outcome of the custody proceedings in the High Court.

Lawyer Datuk Bastian Vendargon, representing the father, told the court that the couple was married according to customary rites in 2013 and the man’s ex-wife later converted to Islam. He said the child was taken care of by the father, who is a fisherman, with the help of his relatives and the community for four years after his former wife abandoned the marriage and left their home.

Two years later, the mother applied to the Syariah Court for custody of the child, but for reasons best known to her, she withdrew the case and took matters into her own hands by taking the child away and subsequently filed an application for custody of the child in the Civil High Court.

Bastian said the father then filed the habeas corpus application.

Lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, representing the woman, argued that the father should have waited for the outcome of the custody proceedings instead of filing the habeas corpus application.