Muslim convert father gets to keep son pending appeal

S. Deepa was given custody of her son by the Seremban High Court. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 14, 2015.

Muslim convert father Izwan Abdullah was granted a stay by the Federal Court today against civil court orders for him to return his son to his Hindu ex-wife, S. Deepa.

The five-man bench of the apex court in Putrajaya gave Izwan a stay to the custody order by the Seremban High Court which granted Deepa custody of the child, a stay for an order to recover the child after he had "kidnapped" the boy from his ex-wife's care, and a stay to the contempt proceedings against him for defying the lower court's orders.

The stay orders by the Federal Court today means that Izwan will keep the six-year-old boy while the court hears his appeal to challenge the custody and recovery orders.

Deepa still retains custody of the couple's elder child, a nine-year-old girl.

The Court of Appeal had previously upheld the decision by the Seremban High Court granting custody of the boy to Deepa.

The High Court's decision had overridden the ruling of the Seremban Shariah Court awarding custody of the two children to Izwan in April 2012. Izwan, whose Hindu name is N. Viran, had unilaterally converted them to Islam without Deepa's knowledge.

After the civil High Court granted custody rights to Deepa, Izwan took the boy from her home and has kept him since. 

He produced the boy in court earlier today as part of an agreement struck last week where Deepa had said she would not raise his contempt of court for defying the civil court orders, provided he brought the boy.

With the stay of orders, the Federal Court is to fix a trial date to hear Izwan's appeal.

The court will also hear an appeal by the Attorney-General's Chambers and the inspector-general of police against the recovery orders issued to the police, who had earlier been instructed to recover the  child.

Police, however, did not comply with the order, citing the conflicting custody orders by the civil and Shariah courts.

The case highlights the long-standing issue of conflicting court decisions as a result of Malaysia's dual-track legal system when one spouse in a civil marriage converts to Islam and also converts the children without the spouse's knowledge.

The Women's Aid Organisation (WAO), in an immediate reaction to the stay orders by the Federal Court today, said despite the earlier court orders, police chose not to act against Izwan and to ignore the court's recovery order.

WAO also noted that Deepa had lodged more than 25 police reports about domestic abuse suffered during her marriage to Izwan.

"Deepa has already painstakingly gone through the court system and various government institutions have previously failed to uphold her rights.

"Relevant family laws should be amended to explicitly disallow government institutions from repeating such violations," WAO said in a press statement.

Deepa, who has not seen her son for nearly a year, said in the WAO statement: "Many women in Malaysia face the same problem as I. I hope in such cases, the courts consider the best interest of the children, and the importance of a mother’s love. I’m so disappointed that my son has to be put through all this because of what his father has done.”

- TMI