JOHOR BAHARU, Oct 2 — The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry will cooperate fully with the Swedish government to assist in returning custodial rights to the Malaysian couple, who have completed their jail term in Sweden for abusing their children.
Its minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim said the Social Welfare Department had submitted 23 reports to the government of Sweden since Azizul Raheem Awaludin and his wife, Shalwati Norshal were detained on March 29 this year.
"We are still following the family's development in order to provide reports to the Swedish government until their side is satisfied with the progress," she told reporters after launching the 2014 Addressing Violence Against Women campaign here today.
Currently the couple's four children, namely Aishah, 15, Ammar, 13, Adam, 12 and Arif, eight, are placed under the custody of their aunt in Kota Bharu, Kelantan.
Rohani said the custodial rights would be returned to their parents if the Swedish government was satisfied with the monthly report sent by the department.
The custodial rights would only be returned to the couple after their children reached, aged 18, or much earlier with the agreement of the Swedish government, she said.
Shalwati arrived at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport here yesterday after she was released from the Hinseberg prison in Frovi, Sweden on Monday.
On March 28, the Solna district court in Stockholm, Sweden imposed a jail sentence of 14 months on Shalwati and 10 months on her husband for gross violation of their children's integrity and hitting them.
However their jail term was reduced and the couple only had to undergo one-third of their sentence.
Meanwhile Rohani said her ministry had requested for a fund allocation of RM100 million, especially to help women, who could not obtain bank loans in the 2015 budget to be presented on October 10. — Bernama
