Sarawak CM's son wants bar on reporting of assets

Hafiz Yatim 4:38PM Oct 24, 2012

Lawyers representing Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, the son of the Sarawak chief minister, have today applied at the Syariah High Court to bar reporters covering his divorce case from reporting the figures of his expenditures and also his assets which were revealed in court today.

Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar (left), who is representing Mahmud along with Saadiah Din, said he had received instructions that the evidence on the total amount of money spent and the total value of his assets not be revealed.

“We are concerned over the safety of the plaintiff’s (Shahnaz A Majid) family with whom they shared a son and that of his own family. We noticed that there are reporters in the public gallery reporting on these issues and we apply that this is not revealed but only the total amount,” said Zainul Rijal.

Shahnaz’s lawyer, Rafie Mohd Shafie, who appeared with Akbardin Abdul Kader, said the court had not declared that this proceeding was a closed court.

“In the last proceeding when we revealed his overseas assets, no objections were made. I have received instructions from my client to object to this application,” he said.

Zainul Rijal said they are making the application now and his client is only concerned over the safety of Shahnaz and their son, and that the defendant’s family may have to hire bodyguards following this revelation.

Mahmud (right), who was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and songkok, arrive in court today with a bodyguard. He appeared in court today after missing the two last sessions last month when it was reported that his Russian wife was sick in London.

Judge Mohamad Abdullah, after hearing the submissions, dismissed the application.

At the previous session, Shahnaz had revealed that some of Mahmud’s assets overseas included 111 accounts in Canada, the United States, Bahamas, France, Monaco, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Switzerland.

She had testified that her former husband has RM700 million in bank accounts overseas, and he is worth in excess of RM1 billion.
The hearing continues on Nov 26 and 28, Dec 24 and Jan 28.