KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: The young Dutch girl at the centre of a highly publicised custody battle that sparked the 1950 Maria Hertogh riots has died, Bernama reported yesterday.

Ms Hertogh died of leukaemia in Huijbergen, the Netherlands, on Wednesday. She was 72.

In 1950, when the High Court in Singapore awarded custody of the 13-year-old girl back to her biological Catholic Dutch parents, the ruling ignited three days of riots.

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