Bekir: RM191mil for child maintenance is madness

Mkini

The Sarawak governor’s eldest son Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib today described the RM191 million child maintenance claim made by his former wife Shahnaz A Majid as “madness” and “unprecedented”.

“There is no sense and sensibility to all her claims in our divorce,” added Mahmud Abu Bekir in a statement released today.

Last week, when testifying at his former wife’s mutaah (gift) claim of RM100 million, Mahmud Abu Bekir told the Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court that allegations of his wealth had been hugely exaggerated following forged documents Shahnaz allegedly obtained from a private Canadian investigator.

There, Mahmud Abu Bekir denied he had assets worth billions of dollars and described it as a lie conjured by a criminal named Cullen Johnson from Canada.

Besides the RM191 million child maintenance, and RM100 million mutaah, Shahnaz (left) is also claiming another RM300 million in a joint matrimonial assets claim.

At present only two of her claims, namely the mutaah and child maintenance assets, are being heard.

In yesterday’s child maintenance proceedings, Shahnaz’s lawyers tried to recuse the presiding judge Azzeman Omar.

However, the court instructed Shahnaz’s lawyers Akbardin Abdul Kader and Rafie Mohd Shafie to file in a formal application.

There were concerns that Azzeman may be prejudiced as she had dismissed two earlier applications made by Shahnaz.

One was not finding her former husband guilty of contempt for skipping child maintenance payments. Mahmud Abu Bekir had previously testified during the contempt proceeding that Shahnaz’s interim claim in excess of RM902,000 was too much.

The other was with regards to the judge not wanting to hear her application to set aside Mahmud Abu Bekir’s appeal against the interim order to pay over RM900,000 in child maintenance.

It was reported that Shahnaz filed the child maintenance claim in 2012 after Mahmud Abu Bekir failed to provide funds to their son Raden Murya Abdul Taib Mahmud, 21, to undergo his university education in the United Kingdom.

She is seeking the funds to finance their son’s education up to the doctorate level.