KUALA LUMPUR: Single mother Loh Siew Hong (pic) is ready for her habeas corpus hearing today in anticipation of bringing her three children home.

       The 34-year-old from Penang has filed the habeas corpus application at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, asking it to compel the return of her children – twin girls aged 14 and a 10-year-old boy.

       “I am ready and I want nothing more than to bring my children home with me. We have lived apart for the last three years and it is time to be a family again,” she said when contacted.

       Loh said she, along with her lawyer, was prepared for the legal move.

       “We are hoping for the best,” she said.

       Loh, who works as a chef, is currently on unpaid leave from her job in Genting Highlands.

       She said she was so eager to have her children back that she had even gone out to buy various necessities and household items such as pillows in anticipation of their return.

       “Nothing will make me happier than to have my children back with me,” she said.

       Loh planned to have her children live with her at an apartment in Kajang, Selangor, should the court decision favour her.

       Currently, she is only allowed to see her children three times a week.

       “When I met them (on Saturday), all three were asking when they could follow me home,” she said, adding that the children were being brought to Kuala Lumpur by the Welfare Department.

       During her search for her children, Loh said she had lodged several police reports to locate their whereabouts.

       “It has been a hard journey,” she said.

       Loh added that she was grateful to those who had helped her, especially Bagan Dalam assemblyman M. Satees and David Marshel, the president of non-governmental organisation Malaysian Tamilar Kural.

       Loh, a Hindu Chinese, was divorced from her husband Nagashwaran Muniandy on March 19, 2019, and thereafter awarded sole custody of her children by the High Court.

       She had been unable to see her children for three years after her ex-husband allegedly took them away and later unilaterally converted them to Muslims in Perlis.

       The Perlis Religious Department has claimed that state laws allow unilateral conversions, although the Federal Court previously ruled that both parents must consent to such conversions, in line with the Federal Constitution.

       Loh said between 2017 and 2019, she lodged numerous police reports against Nagashwaran, whom she claimed had caused her injuries.

       Nagashwaran was arrested for a drug-related offence and is currently in jail in Kelantan.