Ministry may send reps to couple jailed in Sweden

PETALING JAYA: The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry may consider sending a representative to Sweden to consult the Malaysian couple, found guilty by the Solna District Court for child abuse, on their children's future.
Its minister, Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim, said there were no definite plans yet to send a representative or the couple's four children to meet them because they will need to seek the Foreign Ministry's advice on the matter.
"We do not have any issues or restrictions should our services be needed if there is a request from the Foreign Ministry to send a counsellor or a social worker to emotionally support the couple in Sweden.
"On sending their children to meet their parents, this will depend on their guardians as they would know best," she said when contacted today.
It was reported last Friday that the children's mother, Shalwati Norshal, 46, was sentenced to 14 months' jail for gross violation of the integrity of their eldest daughter, Aisyah, 15, and second child Ammar, 12, and beating their two other sons, Adam, 11, and Arif, now 8.
Their father, Azizul Raheem Awalluddin, 38, a Tourism Malaysia director, was handed a 10-month prison sentence.
On Feb 10, Shalwati and Azizul were charged with multiple counts of gross violation of a child's integrity, by hitting and abusing their children.
The offences took place in the family's home in Spånga, a Stockholm suburb, between Sept 15, 2010 and Dec 17, 2013.