Taib's daughter-in-law files RM400m divorce claim
KUALA LUMPUR (March 9, 2011): Datin Seri Shahnaz Abdul Majid, the daughter-in-law of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, has filed for a RM400 million divorce claim against her husband Datuk Seri Mahmud Abu Bekir Abdul Taib.
Shahnaz, who is the sister of jazz queen Datuk Sheila Majid, is claiming alimony of RM300 million and RM100 million as her share of their jointly-acquired properties (harta sepencarian).In her statement of claim filed at the Syariah Lower Court here on Feb 22, Shahnaz alleged that Mahmud Abu Bekir, whom she had married over 19 years ago, had caused her physical and mental torture.
She said her claims were justified and reasonable as they had been married for over 19 years and more so, the defendant had income and properties running in the billions of ringgit.
She also wants the court to declare other assets owned by Mahmud Abu Bekir, including seven luxury cars, thousands of hectares of land in Sarawak and shares in 15 companies, as jointly-acquired properties of which she is claiming half share.
The couple were married on Jan 9, 1992 and have a son, Raden Murya Abdul Taib Mahmud, 18.
Mahmud Abu Bekir who is Kumpulan Cahya Mata Sarawak deputy chairman was not present in court today.
Syariah Lower Court judge Mohd Amirul Adam Ahmad set March 24 for mention after Shahnaz's lawyer Rafie Mohd Shafie informed the court that they were unable to serve the papers on Mahmud Abu Bekir.He said the papers were sent to the Mahmud Abu Bekir's house at No 8, Duta Nusantara, Jalan Sri Hartamas 1, Off Jalan Duta here on Feb 28.
"The papers were delivered but not to the defendent himself. Instead a maid at the house received them. A such, we request the court for the papers to be sent to the defendant by registered post," said Rafie. — Bernama
AdiLan's Club : Wednesday, March 09, 2011
No trick or threat in obtaining samples, court told
KUALA LUMPUR -- There was no trick, inducement, threat or promise involved in obtaining four samples from the cell where Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was detained overnight on July 16 2008, the High Court was old today.Therefore, the court should allow the samples to be exhibits in the sodomy trial and to reject the application of the defence for them to be excluded on the grounds that they were obtained illegally, Solicitor-General II Datuk Mohamed Yusof said."Anwar was not tricked to use the toothbrush, towel or to drink the mineral water. There was no inducement or threat or oppression used against him when he was in the cell," Mohamed Yusof said in his submission at the end of the trial within a trial.The exhibits were toothpaste, toothbrush, a Good Morning towel and a bottle of mineral bottle which were lifted by former DSP Amidon Anan from the cell, and were confirmed later by chemist Nor Aidora Saedon to have the DNA profile of Male "Y", which was the semen found in the anus of complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.While the court could exclude the evidence obtained illegally, it also had the discretion to accept it if it was relevant to the case, Mohamed Yusof said, citing more than 10 national and international case laws.In his two-and-a-half-hour submission, Mohamed Yusof said there was nothing illegal about the arrest of Anwar on July 16, 2008.He said that DSP Ahmad Taufik Abdullah had informed Anwar of the reason when serving the warrant of arrest before his statement was recorded by investigation officer DSP Judy Blacious Pereira.Even though police were empowered to detain anyone for at least 24 hours without giving any reason, Anwar and his counsel S. N. Nair were informed of the grounds of the arrest, Mohamed Yusof said.
Taib's daughter-in-law files RM400m divorce claim
KUALA LUMPUR (March 9, 2011): Datin Seri Shahnaz Abdul Majid, the daughter-in-law of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, has filed for a RM400 million divorce claim against her husband Datuk Seri Mahmud Abu Bekir Abdul Taib.
Shahnaz, who is the sister of jazz queen Datuk Sheila Majid, is claiming alimony of RM300 million and RM100 million as her share of their jointly-acquired properties (harta sepencarian).In her statement of claim filed at the Syariah Lower Court here on Feb 22, Shahnaz alleged that Mahmud Abu Bekir, whom she had married over 19 years ago, had caused her physical and mental torture.
She said her claims were justified and reasonable as they had been married for over 19 years and more so, the defendant had income and properties running in the billions of ringgit.
She also wants the court to declare other assets owned by Mahmud Abu Bekir, including seven luxury cars, thousands of hectares of land in Sarawak and shares in 15 companies, as jointly-acquired properties of which she is claiming half share.
The couple were married on Jan 9, 1992 and have a son, Raden Murya Abdul Taib Mahmud, 18.
Mahmud Abu Bekir who is Kumpulan Cahya Mata Sarawak deputy chairman was not present in court today.
Syariah Lower Court judge Mohd Amirul Adam Ahmad set March 24 for mention after Shahnaz's lawyer Rafie Mohd Shafie informed the court that they were unable to serve the papers on Mahmud Abu Bekir.He said the papers were sent to the Mahmud Abu Bekir's house at No 8, Duta Nusantara, Jalan Sri Hartamas 1, Off Jalan Duta here on Feb 28.
"The papers were delivered but not to the defendent himself. Instead a maid at the house received them. A such, we request the court for the papers to be sent to the defendant by registered post," said Rafie. — Bernama
AdiLan's Club : Wednesday, March 09, 2011
No trick or threat in obtaining samples, court told
KUALA LUMPUR -- There was no trick, inducement, threat or promise involved in obtaining four samples from the cell where Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was detained overnight on July 16 2008, the High Court was old today.Therefore, the court should allow the samples to be exhibits in the sodomy trial and to reject the application of the defence for them to be excluded on the grounds that they were obtained illegally, Solicitor-General II Datuk Mohamed Yusof said."Anwar was not tricked to use the toothbrush, towel or to drink the mineral water. There was no inducement or threat or oppression used against him when he was in the cell," Mohamed Yusof said in his submission at the end of the trial within a trial.The exhibits were toothpaste, toothbrush, a Good Morning towel and a bottle of mineral bottle which were lifted by former DSP Amidon Anan from the cell, and were confirmed later by chemist Nor Aidora Saedon to have the DNA profile of Male "Y", which was the semen found in the anus of complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.While the court could exclude the evidence obtained illegally, it also had the discretion to accept it if it was relevant to the case, Mohamed Yusof said, citing more than 10 national and international case laws.In his two-and-a-half-hour submission, Mohamed Yusof said there was nothing illegal about the arrest of Anwar on July 16, 2008.He said that DSP Ahmad Taufik Abdullah had informed Anwar of the reason when serving the warrant of arrest before his statement was recorded by investigation officer DSP Judy Blacious Pereira.Even though police were empowered to detain anyone for at least 24 hours without giving any reason, Anwar and his counsel S. N. Nair were informed of the grounds of the arrest, Mohamed Yusof said.
Taib's daughter-in-law files RM400m divorce claim
KUALA LUMPUR (March 9, 2011): Datin Seri Shahnaz Abdul Majid, the daughter-in-law of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, has filed for a RM400 million divorce claim against her husband Datuk Seri Mahmud Abu Bekir Abdul Taib.
Shahnaz, who is the sister of jazz queen Datuk Sheila Majid, is claiming alimony of RM300 million and RM100 million as her share of their jointly-acquired properties (harta sepencarian).
In her statement of claim filed at the Syariah Lower Court here on Feb 22, Shahnaz alleged that Mahmud Abu Bekir, whom she had married over 19 years ago, had caused her physical and mental torture.
She said her claims were justified and reasonable as they had been married for over 19 years and more so, the defendant had income and properties running in the billions of ringgit.
She also wants the court to declare other assets owned by Mahmud Abu Bekir, including seven luxury cars, thousands of hectares of land in Sarawak and shares in 15 companies, as jointly-acquired properties of which she is claiming half share.
The couple were married on Jan 9, 1992 and have a son, Raden Murya Abdul Taib Mahmud, 18.
Mahmud Abu Bekir who is Kumpulan Cahya Mata Sarawak deputy chairman was not present in court today.
Syariah Lower Court judge Mohd Amirul Adam Ahmad set March 24 for mention after Shahnaz's lawyer Rafie Mohd Shafie informed the court that they were unable to serve the papers on Mahmud Abu Bekir.
He said the papers were sent to the Mahmud Abu Bekir's house at No 8, Duta Nusantara, Jalan Sri Hartamas 1, Off Jalan Duta here on Feb 28.
"The papers were delivered but not to the defendent himself. Instead a maid at the house received them. A such, we request the court for the papers to be sent to the defendant by registered post," said Rafie. — Bernama
"The papers were delivered but not to the defendent himself. Instead a maid at the house received them. A such, we request the court for the papers to be sent to the defendant by registered post," said Rafie. — Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR -- There was no trick, inducement, threat or promise involved in obtaining four samples from the cell where Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was detained overnight on July 16 2008, the High Court was old today.
Therefore, the court should allow the samples to be exhibits in the sodomy trial and to reject the application of the defence for them to be excluded on the grounds that they were obtained illegally, Solicitor-General II Datuk Mohamed Yusof said.
"Anwar was not tricked to use the toothbrush, towel or to drink the mineral water. There was no inducement or threat or oppression used against him when he was in the cell," Mohamed Yusof said in his submission at the end of the trial within a trial.
The exhibits were toothpaste, toothbrush, a Good Morning towel and a bottle of mineral bottle which were lifted by former DSP Amidon Anan from the cell, and were confirmed later by chemist Nor Aidora Saedon to have the DNA profile of Male "Y", which was the semen found in the anus of complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
While the court could exclude the evidence obtained illegally, it also had the discretion to accept it if it was relevant to the case, Mohamed Yusof said, citing more than 10 national and international case laws.
In his two-and-a-half-hour submission, Mohamed Yusof said there was nothing illegal about the arrest of Anwar on July 16, 2008.
He said that DSP Ahmad Taufik Abdullah had informed Anwar of the reason when serving the warrant of arrest before his statement was recorded by investigation officer DSP Judy Blacious Pereira.
Even though police were empowered to detain anyone for at least 24 hours without giving any reason, Anwar and his counsel S. N. Nair were informed of the grounds of the arrest, Mohamed Yusof said.
Rosmah hits back at critics of Ankara award
PETALING JAYA: Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor took the bull by the horns and replied to criticisms about her recent award from Ankara.
“Some people are saying that it was planned, and they decided to give me the award just because I would be visiting the country,” said the Prime Minister’s wife.
During her visit to the city of Ankara last month, the city conferred on her Turkey’s “Award of Social Responsibility” for her social work.
Mayor Melih Gokcheh had said Rosmah’s continuous and active participation in social activities was admired by the Greater Ankara Municipality.
Rosmah yesterday said she had received the letter informing her about the award much earlier, before the trip to Turkey.
“My husband suggested that I ask to collect the award early, during our official visit to the country.
“I have made this clear, so please don’t criticise me anymore,” she said.
Earlier, Rosmah said education was the single most transformational tool for women to attain their fullest potential.
“Educated women can provide great benefit to both the family and community, including better educated children and improved nutrition and health,” she said before launching the Most Outstanding Malaysian Chinese Women Awards held in conjunction with the 100th International Women’s Day celebration.
She added that access to the field of science and technology would empower women through learning and employment.
Rosmah congratulated her husband and Barisan Nasional on the double victory at the Merlimau and Kerdau by-elections yesterday.
Rosmah added that Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was “beaming from ear to ear” after hearing the good news.
Final arguments before crucial decision in mini-trial
Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial resumes today with final arguments made by both the defence and prosecution in the trial-within-a-trial.
Anwar, along with lawyers Sankara Nair and Subang MP Sivarasa Rasiah, had testified for the defence, while arresting officer, superintendent (then ASP) Ahmad Taufiq Abdullah, testified for the prosecution.
Anwar and Sankara told the court that no grounds of arrest were mentioned when the former was taken away in July 2008 by a team of balaclava-clad police officers.
Sivarasa meanwhile testified that he warned the investigating officer not to keep Anwar overnight after his statement was recorded and he underwent a medical examination.In this trial-within-a-trial, top defence lawyer Karpal Singh is attempting to prove that the arrest was unlawful and the three items retrieved from the cell where Anwar was detained overnight - which contain the 'Male Y' DNA - were unfairly and unlawfully obtained.
Ahmad Taufiq meanwhile told the court that he did inform Sankara and Anwar that the arrest was made based on the allegation under Section 377B for consensual sodomy.
However, the police officer acknowledged that the warrant of arrest, dated July 15, 2008, was only given to Anwar at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters where he was detained.
It remains to be seen whether Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah will make his decision on the admissibility of the crucial evidence today.
The three items which the prosecution wants the court to mark as evidence could make or break its case against Anwar.
The three items which the prosecution wants the court to mark as evidence could make or break its case against Anwar.
Ummi is back to haunt Anwar
The re-emergence of Ummi Hafilda Ali, the woman who caused the beginning of the end of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s political career, created a stir on the Merlimau and Kerdau ceramah circuit. It looks like the lady intends to make her presence felt in the months ahead.
THERE is no denying it. Ummi Hafilda Ali still has the ability to make waves wherever she appears. Love her or hate her but you cannot ignore her.
The lady has been the most sensational thing on the ceramah circuit in Merlimau and Kerdau. On Friday night, she was back in Merlimau by popular demand.
There was a buzz of excitement when her silver BMW glided into the compound where the ceramah was being held. As she climbed out of her chauffeur-driven car, a couple of men who looked like bodyguards leapt out of a black SUV following behind.
The lady travels in style but it was quite clear she was not taking chances with her personal security.
And if colours are an indication of mood, then Ummi’s must be on the upbeat. The first time she appeared in Merlimau, she wore a grey jubah-like dress. In Kerdau, she was in a pale green floral gown.
Her encore appearance in Merlimau saw her in a colourful outfit dotted with sequins, a gauzy selendang over her head and lots of bling on her wrists and fingers.
Her skin is still smooth and lily-white but the years have added inches to her hips and she needed reading glasses to refer to her notes.
And she looked rather demure –until she opened her mouth.
Ummi does not mince her words. She looks like a lady but talks like a man.
Ummi is, of course, the woman whose allegations of a relationship between Anwar and her sister-in-law started the downward spiral for Anwar’s political career. One thing led to another and by 1998, Anwar had been sacked as deputy prime minister.
Ummi was the catalyst to Anwar’s fall from grace. At the height of thereformasi period, Ummi was arguably the most hated woman in the country.
But a lot of water has since passed under the bridge and Ummi’s side of the story is now being heard with less emotion and much more objectivity than ever before.
That, she said, has been her purpose of going around – to tell her side of the story which she had been unable to tell in full because people were not ready to listen then.
She is a compelling speaker and has commanded the attention of her audience wherever she has spoken. They are admittedly not big audiences but, as her experiences in Merlimau and Kerdau have shown, the crowds who come to see her have been completely absorbed by what she has to say.
It was not always like this. Years ago, when she tried to explain her action, people would jeer at her and call her names. These days, she holds her audience in the palm of her hand.
People were glued to the spot from the moment she started speaking, so much so that one could feel her audience letting out a big sigh when she stopped, as though they had been holding their breath throughout.
That is the effect of Ummi. It is not only what she has to say, but how she says it. After so many years, her conviction that she had done the right thing is still rock solid.
One can see that she has made it her life mission to expose what she calls the “hypocrisy of Anwar Ibrahim” and his politics.
The other aspect of Ummi’s mission is, of course, her crusade against her elder brother Azmin Ali, the powerful PKR deputy president and Anwar’s right-hand man.
That was what made her both notorious and infamous – the fact that she had dared take on the second most powerful man in national politics and she had gone against her own flesh and blood. It was the stuff of movies but it was happening in real life.
Why Anwar is in the dock
COMMENT
By N SurendranPETALING JAYA: The reason why PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim now sits daily in the dock of the Kuala Lumpur High Court undergoing trial on a criminal charge is obvious to any thinking person.
Anwar tried to set in train a series of fundamental changes to the way this country is being administered and to our national political discourse.
These changes would almost certainly have rendered the Barisan Nasional government irrelevant and eventually driven them from power.
It is of no matter to the BN government and its leaders that these changes are supremely beneficial to the people. It is only their own political survival that matters to them.
Upon this survival they are obssesively fixated, to the utter exclusion of what is good for the country.
Anwar’s reforms would have driven out economic mismanagement and wasteful corruption and cronyism; freed from political control institutions that were meant to be independent; and returned to us the political freeedoms wrested away by the BN government over the course of 50 long years.
The BN’s structures, imperatives and personalities make it virtually impossible for them to embrace reform and to redeem themselves.
And so they tighten their debilitating grip on a country that is struggling to move forward towards freedom and prosperity for all, and use underhand means to strike down anyone fighting to return power to the people.
Thus, Anwar sits daily in a hard angular dock, and the nation’s fate hangs in balance.
It is nothing new for intolerant regimes to organize trumped-up charges against political opponents.
Reforms needed
In the 1930s, Stalin engineered a series of show trials which disposed of all those who posed any kind of threat to his power.
In 1995 Ken Saro Wiwa, a highly respected critic of the Nigerian goverment was tried on fabricated charges by a military tribunal and executed despite international condemnation.
In 2009 Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years of hard labour in prison after a sham trial on a ridiculous charge of having broken house arrest.
Brave Chinese dissidents such as Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo are regularly prosecuted in the communist regime’s unrighteous courts and given long prison sentences.
It is in this revolting tradition that the Barisan Nasional government now carries on the judicial persecution and show trial of Anwar Ibrahim. It fools no one that this hounding of Anwar is clothed and camouflaged by a debased type of formal legal process.
As the chief instrument of this persecution, the office of the Attorney General must be comprehensively reformed, and his untrammelled powers must be checked by far-reaching legislative reforms.
The higher police authorities and the government must be held accountable for the outrage done to the course of public justice and for the sheer waste of public funds neccessitated by these proceedings.
No nation struggling to a new birth of freedom can be held down for long. The road may be long and hard, but I call upon the people of our great nation to stay the course and see things through.
We owe this to ourselves and to the generations to come.
N Surendran is a PKR vice-president and a human rights lawyer.
List of political parties by ideology
Here is a list of political parties by ideology .
Agrarian / Agriculture
Agrarian Party of Russia (Agrarnaya Partiya Rossii)
Farmers Party (Nóngmíndǎng)
Farmer-Farmer Party Butyl (Butyl Farmers Party)
