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- Bekir disagreed with the suggestion that his alleged 'hot-temper' and repeated …
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 — Datuk Seri Mahmud Abu Bekir, the son of Sarawak’s longest serving chief minister and current governor ,Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud, today denied abusing his wife and living a playboy lifestyle in a RM400 million divorce settlement hearing at the Shariah High Court.
The businessman was quizzed by his former wife's lawyer on whether his alleged lifestyle as a “playboy” during which he would disappear for weeks without informing his wife had led to the failure of their almost two-decade-long marriage.
“I disagree,” Bekir replied during cross-examination.
Earlier, he disagreed with Shahnaz Abdul Majid's counsel Akbardin Abdul Kader's suggestion that he had intimate relations with many other women around the globe during his marriage.
“Not correct,” the second son of the former Sarawak chief minister replied, later denying that he had relationships with women from Latvia or Russia during the 1992 to 1999 period.
But Bekir said he met an Australian who was undertaking a religious course in Singapore in 1999.
He later disagreed that his marriage with Shahnaz failed because he was allegedly “unfaithful” and “cheating on her”.
Bekir also disagreed with the suggestion that his alleged “hot-temper” and repeated attacks on her during the 1994 to 1999 period had contributed to the marriage failure.
He denied all of the assault incidents raised by Shahnaz's lawyer — including her claims of being hit, kicked, strangled and receiving bruises, also disagreeing that they were a “clear manifestation” of his violent nature.
During cross-examination, Akbardin accused Bekir of “lying” to the court by merely giving a “bare denial” to the allegations of physical and mental assaults, pointing out that the businessman had never challenged Shahnaz's account in court.
When Bekir said it was the task of his lawyers to challenge Shahnaz's claims, Akbardin said his failure to instruct his lawyers to do so proved that the allegations were true.
“This really happened, so you never gave instructions to the lawyers. Don't blame lawyers. Detailed testimony, one by one, but not challenged at all. Therefore, I say the testimony is a truth,” Akbardin said.
“I disagree,” Bekir replied once again.
In her divorce papers, Shahnaz is seeking some RM400 million in a divorce settlement, including matrimonial property and mutaah (Islamic conciliatory payment), as well as half the assets owned by her ex-husband, including seven luxury cars, thousands of hectares of land in Sarawak, homes in countries abroad and shares in about 15 companies.
According to previous media reports, the sister of Malaysian jazz queen Datuk Sheila Majid had sought to end the marriage in accordance with the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) Act 1984, citing her husband’s alleged failure to give her nafkah batin (conjugal rights) since 2001.
Shahnaz and Mahmud Abu Bekir married on January 9, 1992, when they were both aged 28, and they have a 20-year-old son named Raden Murya.
Mahmud Abu Bekir filed for divorce almost two decades later on May 11, 2011.
Shahnaz was also represented by Dr Rafie Mohd Shafie, while Bekir's lead counsel Datuk Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar was also present.
The hearing for the divorce retrial before Shariah High Court judge Muhamad Abdul Karim Wahab will resume on January 21.
