I would obey civil court, ex-IGP says as top cop dithers over Hindu mum’s custody order

(Malay Mail Online) – Retired national police chief Tan Sri Musa Hassan said today that he would jump to return a child caught in an interfaith custody battle and arrest the Muslim convert father as told by the civil High Court despite conflicting orders from the Shariah Court.

The former inspector-general of police (IGP) noted that in custody tussles involving Muslim converts, the marriage was registered in civil courts and the non-Muslim spouse only had recourse to the civil justice system.

“So if I was still IGP and given an order to serve a warrant, I would do it,” Musa told a forum here today on strengthening the institution of the royalty.

“I feel that the Sultan cannot interfere in this because we want to protect the Sultan from being sued. It’s the Islamic Department’s role to find a solution,” said the police veteran who served as IGP from September 2006 to September 2010.

The Ipoh High Court ordered yesterday the IGP to enforce a previous warrant of arrest and recovery order against Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah, who had taken his youngest daughter from his estranged wife M. Indira Gandhi when the child was just 11-months-old in April 2009.

After Muslim convert Ridzuan bailed, the Ipoh High Court granted his ex-wife Indira, a Hindu, full custody of the couple’s three children.

The civil court also quashed their unilateral conversion to Islam by Ridzuan and issued a recovery order for the youngest child.

The same court also cited Ridzuan for contempt and issued a warrant to arrest and jail him unless he gave up the child.

Lawyers have said that IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar must comply with the High Court order or risk facing a contempt of court charge.

Khalid said last June that the police will not enforce any decision by the civil courts in interfaith custody battles where one party is Muslim.

He said the police was “sandwiched” between the civil and Shariah legal systems and proposed instead for children caught in custody tussles to be placed in welfare homes.

Yesterday, a Bukit Aman spokesman told Malay Mail Online that a response from the IGP on the matter is not ready as yet.