A Malaysian prince sued his runaway Indonesian teen wife and mother-in-law on Monday for claiming he had raped and tortured the teen during their year-long marriage, his lawyer said.
Tengku Temenggong Tengku Mohammad Fakhry, a prince in northern Kelantan state, filed a defamation suit in the High Court seeking 105 million ringgit (US$30 million) in damages from Manohara Odelia Pinot and her mother, said lawyer Mohamad Haaziq Pillay.
The 17-year-old Pinot, a well-known socialite, returned to Indonesia in May and told media that the 31-year-old Fakhry had slashed her with razor blades and treated her as a sex slave. She reportedly said she was held captive in her room and drugged whenever she complained.
PHOTO: AP
She allegedly escaped while accompanying the state royal family on a trip to Singapore and filed a police report in Indonesia shortly afterward.
The scandal has captured widespread media attention in both Malaysia and Indonesia.
Fakhry’s lawsuit accuses Pinot and her mother, Daisy Fajarina, of concocting the allegations “out of spite” and “motivated by a desire of financial gains,” Mohamad Haaziq said.
“They have made my client out to be a monster and his reputation has been tarnished. My client is keen to get to the truth of the matter and clear his name,” he said.
Pinot and her mother, who are in Indonesia, have 21 days to respond to the suit. If they don’t, the case could go on in their absence.
“We can have judgment in default but they should come and defend themselves. This is the best forum for Manohara to seek justice instead of hiding behind the press and making baseless allegations,” Mohamad Haaziq said.
Pinot married Fakhry last year after she turned 16. Her mother has said Pinot had been kidnapped.
Mohamad Haaziq said Fakhry has filed to divorce Pinot and the case will be heard in the Islamic Shariah court on Aug 2. The court handles family matters for Muslims.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS