Muhammad Riduan has no right to be heard: Counsel

whether Hatim could represent Muhammad Riduan.

Kulasegaran said Muhammad Riduan (pix) does not have the right to be heard as he had not purged his contempt for disobeying a High Court order on May 30, 2014 to return his daughter to Indira, a kindergarten teacher.

Hatim told the court the last time he had contacted his client was last year after the Court of Appeal decision reinstating the conversion certificates of the couple’s three children which had been nullified by the Ipoh High Court.

He said after that he only contacted Muhammad Riduan through third parties.

In a 2-1 majority decision, the Court of Appeal on Dec 30 last year ruled that the Civil High Court did not have the jurisdiction to decide on the validity of children’s conversion which is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the syariah court to determine.

It allowed the appeal by the Perak Islamic Religious Department director, the Perak government, Registrar of Converts, the Education Ministry and the government of Malaysia to set aside the Ipoh High Court ruling that the conversion certificates of the three children were null and void.

The children, two girls and a boy, now aged 19, 18, and eight were converted to Islam by their father, Muhammad Riduan, 46, in April 2009 without Indira’s consent after his conversion to Islam.

They were then aged 12 and 11, and 11 months.

The two older children, Tevi Darsiny, 19, and Karan Dinish, 18, are in Indira’s care.

On April 29 this year, the Federal Court ordered the arrest of Muhammad Riduan for defying a High Court order for him to hand over Prasana Diksa to Indira.