PETALING JAYA: With the police seeking to extend the remand order on the wife of the late Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan this morning, a small group took to protesting outside the Magistrate Court complex, here.
NSTP reported yesterday that the police will also be applying for a remand order against Nazrin's two stepsons, aged 17 and 14, detained on Saturday.
The protest is with regard to the manner in which Nazrin's stepsons were handled following their arrest.
Made up of a group of Nazrin's family members as well as members of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) Voice of the Children, the group carried placards as they stood on the court complex's steps.
The group of some 20 people are calling for better treatment for the two boys, protesting the fact that they were handcuffed and made to wear lock-up attire.
Among the placards carried were 'the young have rights in remand', 'shorter remand for minors' and 'don't sell out a child's privacy to sell newspapers'.
The group's spokesperson Hartini Zainuddin said handcuffing the boys went against the code prescribed by the United Nations (UN) on the treatment of minors.
"This sort of action humiliates them, I am here because I was told there has been a violation of the code for children.
"Unicef suggested 12 years ago that teenagers should not be cuffed or made to wear lockup attire," she said when met outside the court complex, here, today.
While police earlier denied the boys were arrested following a report by a news portal, they confirmed that the boys were picked up on Saturday from the home of their grandfather, political scientist Dr Chandra Muzaffar, in Taman Tun Dr Ismail.
Previously, cops arrested Nazrin's wife Samirah Muzaffar and her ex-husband.
Her ex-husband has since been released.
Nazrin died on June 14 in what was earlier reported as having been due to smoke inhalation from a fire caused by an exploding mobile phone in his bedroom at a double-storey semi-detached house in Mutiara Damansara, here.
However, later on it was said that traces of petrol were found on Nazrin's head, bedframe and his cellphone.
Police have since reclassified the case as murder.
His teenage stepsons were detained following a development that said the 45-year-old suffered a puncture wound to his head.
It is believed that the puncture wound was caused by an archery row and that led to the arrest of the two boys as it is learned that together with their mother, they have skills pertaining to the sport.