In a new twist of events, the Selangor Islamic Affairs Council (Mais) filed a notice at the Shah Alam Syariah High Court this afternoon withdrawing its claim on the body of deceased A Rayappan.

This latest development came a day after Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi ordered attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail to personally interfere in the case.

"If the AG's Chambers finds he is not a Muslim, his body should be returned to his family," Abdullah was quoted as saying yesterday.

Mais chairman, Mohamad Adzib Mohamad Isa, said that after discussions with Islamic leaders and legal advisors the council found it did not have enough information for its claim, the state Bernama news agency reported.

"With this, Mais is retracting the case from the courts today and will not make any more claims. We will not be claiming back the corpse after this," he was quoted as saying.

Mais had on Dec 1 obtained a syariah court order to claim the body for a Muslim burial but took it upon itself to file a review of its application three days later in the higher syariah court so as to allow it to subpoena Rayappan's three daughters to testify that he was a Christian.

However, when Rayappan's daughters refused to appear before an Islamic court, the Syariah High Court yesterday referred the matter higher up - to the Syariah Court of Appeals, which fixed Dec 12 for mention.

Meanwhile, Rayappan's wife M Lourdes Mary, who maintains that the deceased died a Catholic, had on Dec 4 filed a civil suit against the government and the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital seeking a declaration allowing her to claim the deceased's remains for a Christian burial.

Lourdes Mary's counsel, M Manoharan, when contacted, said his client's family would be claiming the deceased's remains this evening from the hospital morgue for cremation on Saturday.

"Despite their sadness over the death, the family is happy that the body has finally been released."

He said the body would be at the deceased's house tomorrow for relatives and friends to pay their last respects.

Nevertheless, Manoharan added that Rayappan's family intends to pursue their legal suit in the civil High Court.

"On Monday, my client will proceed with her suit and seek general and aggravated damages for the delay in handing over the deceased's remains," said Manoharan.

Rayappan, 71, who died last Wednesday after a long illness, was born a Roman Catholic, but converted to Islam in 1990 when he took a Muslim woman as his second wife.

Under Malaysian law, non-Muslims must first convert to Islam before they can marry Muslims.

In 1996, Rayappan - who was a van driver - renounced Islam and went back to Mary, 69, and their six children, lawyers said.

Evidence produced

A confrontation was triggered when Lourdes Mary and her family were stopped from claiming Rayappan's body at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital on Nov 29 by officials from the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department (Jawi) on grounds that he was a Muslim.

The matter was later handled by Selangor's Mais.

Mais then referred the matter to the Shah Alam Syariah Court which ruled last Friday that Rayappan - or Muhammad Rayappan Abdullah - must be buried according to Islamic rites.

However, in an unusual move, Mais applied for a review of its own application at the Syariah High Court.

Mais then subpoenaed the daughters to appear before the court, but they ignored the order.

Lawyers for Rayappan's family said they had produced evidence that Rayappan had spent his final several years of his life as a practising Catholic, but the religious authorities had not furnished any evidence to suggest otherwise.

"As far as Mais is concerned, they have not provided us with a single document until today (nor rebutted our evidence)," said lawyer A Sivanesan.

On Dec 1, Sivanesan showed reporters copies of Rayappan's MyKad, National Registration Department documents and a deed poll which indicated that the deceased was not a Muslim.

At a press conference earlier today before Mais withdrew its court application, Sivanesan also produced a letter by Rev Patrick Boudville, parish priest of the Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Setapak who said that Rayappan was a Catholic.

Three photographs which showed Rayappan taking part in Catholic rites were enclosed.

One photograph (left), dated September 2005, showed Rayappan receiving the holy communion, a rite strictly reserved for baptised Catholics only.

Another showed Rayappan at a church service which included the baptism of a child.

'Permanent solution'

"With this, I think we have shown enough evidence that A Rayappan was a Christian [...] this is the evidence they wanted (to be presented at the Syariah court)," said Sivanesan, reiterating that his clients nor the priest would answer the Syariah High Court subpoenas.

Maintaining that his clients were not subjected to syariah laws, he said being present at the syariah courts to answer the subpoenas would merely be a piecemeal solution that would not stop such problems from recurring.

"What we want is a permanent solution. Give us our rights. Where is our remedy (in court)?" said Sivanesan, adding that the case of M Moorthy and S Shamala were still pending in court without a solution in sight.

The Rayappan saga adds to the list of cases, unprecedented up until December last year, which involved Islamic religious authorities tussling with the families of deceased over the rights to claim the body for Muslim burial rites.