Dutchman defies court order

KUALA LUMPUR: A Dutch computer programmer challenged the sovereignty of the rule of law when he failed to follow a court order to bring his six-year-old Malaysian son to the court, says Umno Youth’s community complaints bureau.

Bureau chairman Datuk Muhd Khairun Aseh said Firdaus @ Frank Theodorus van de Ven, 40, insulted the order issued by the Shah Alam Syariah Court on March 25 to produce Ferris Mokhtar van de Ven, whom he allegedly whisked away six months ago.

Whereabouts unknown: A poster showing Ferris Mokhtar whom his father allegedly whisked away six months ago.

“We will be handing over a letter to the Dutch embassy next week to inform them of Frank’s disobedience of the court order,” he told a press conference at the bureau’s office in Solaris Dutamas here yesterday.

“We urge those involved to follow what is required of the law so that diplomatic relations between Malaysia and the Netherlands will be preserved,” said Muhd Khairun.

He also hoped that the rights of Ferris Mokhtar’s Malaysian mother Elis Syuhaila Mokhtar would be upheld.

Muhd Khairun said the bureau had started to search for van de Ven by working together with the Foreign Ministry and foreign consulates to refer the matter to the Malaysian embassy in the Netherlands.

“We have also requested the Immigration Department to supply us with the latest re- cords regarding Frank’s movements in and out of the country,” he said.

On March 25, the court issued an arrest warrant against van de Ven and asked for help from Interpol and other relevant authorities to arrest and stop him from leaving Malaysia.

Distraught mum: Elis Syuhaila holding back her tears as she speaks to the press yesterday. With her is Muhd Khairun.

Elis Syuhaila, who was also present, wept as she told reporters that it was her dearest wish to see Ferris before Hari Raya.

The 34-year-old temporary teacher said she had sent numerous e-mails to her parents-in-law to ask of the whereabouts of her son but did not receive any reply.

The couple, currently seeking a divorce, were married on Dec 23, 2001 and lived in Belgium until Elis Syuhaila returned to Malaysia two years ago.

They filed for divorce in January last year and took turns every week to look after Ferris until March 5 when van de Ven failed to return him.

Elis Syuhaila also claimed her husband tried to attack her on two occasions.

The first time was when he broke her house gate on Feb 15 last year, she said.

“The second incident was on Dec 12 last year when I was about to take a picture of Ferris at a hotel. He tried to strangle me, and attacked me with pepper spray in public,” she added.