Zaid expects to be charged over comments on Indira Gandhi case

Police today questioned ​Datuk Zaid Ibrahim over his criticism of Malaysian courts in the case involving the custodial battle between a Hindu woman and her Muslim ex-husband. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 12, 2016.

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim expects to be charged with sedition soon over his criticism of the recent Court of Appeal judgment in the case of kindergarten teacher M. Indira Gandhi, involving her ex-husband's unilateral conversion of their children to Islam, The Star reports.

The former law minister said he was questioned for about one and a half hours today over an article published in the English daily.

In his article, Zaid said the religious tussle was "heart-wrenching", and criticised Malaysian laws and the judiciary.

"I expect to be charged in court," The Star quoted him as saying. 

On January 7, Zaid tweeted that he had received a call from the CID department over his article "My heart goes out to you Indira".

In the article, Zaid said he felt sick thinking how the legal system could not grant relief to a mother who had been deprived of her daughter for so many years.

On December 30, the Court of Appeal led by Datuk Balia Yusof Wahi in a majority ruling held that the validity of conversion of Indira's three children by their Muslim father could only be determined by the shariah court.

Setting aside the Ipoh High Court's ruling, it said the civil court did not have jurisdiction to hear the conversion.

The lone dissenting judge on the three-man bench, Datuk Hamid Sultan Abu Backer, however, said the children's conversion was purely administrative and the civil court could inquire into it.

The two elder children Tevi Darsiny and Karan Dinish are currently in Indira's custody while the youngest, Prasana Diksa, is being held by her ex-husband Muhammad Riduan Abdullah despite a High Court ruling in 2011 awarding custody to the mother.

It was also reported last week that the Cabinet had assigned three ministers to look into the implications of the Court of Appeal judgment on the conversion case as it had "wide implications".

- TMI