Kelantan prince’s wife Manohara in the news again

(The Star) KUALA LUMPUR: She was a model and well-known socialite in Indonesia but Manohara Odelia Pinot is back in the limelight after she alleged her Kelantan prince husband of treating her inhumanely.

Stories of the 17-year-old were splashed across the print media in Indonesia yesterday.

Banjarmasin Post quoted Manohara, who is married to 31-year-old Tengku Temenggong Tengku Mohamad Fakhry Sultan Ismail Petra, as saying she fled from a hotel in Singapore last Sunday.

She related how palace officials tried to stop her but she was rescued by Singaporean authorities who saw her struggling with them on a CCTV.

She was reported to have escaped with the help of the US embassy in Singapore and was reunited with her mother on the ground floor of the hotel.

The couple was in Singapore to visit the Sultan of Kelantan, who was undergoing treatment for a heart ailment at the Mount Elizabeth hospital.

Berita Kompass reported that the Indonesian Foreign ministry would take up the Manohara case to Malaysia if she filed an official complaint.

Jakarta Post showed a picture of Manohara being kissed by her mother Daisy Fajarina at their home in Sipli, West Jakarta.

Daisy had frequently appeared on TV gossip shows claiming that her daughter had been kidnapped and abused.

She said she would press charges against the prince, and blamed the Malaysian and Indonesian authorities for trying to cover up the alleged abuse.

“The things I’ve been afraid of were revealed to be true. Manohara has suffered physical abuse. She’s got several razor cuts on her chest,” Daisy told AFP yesterday. She said Manohara had already filed for divorce.

Upon her return, Manohara confirmed her mother’s claims in a press conference that she had been ill-treated.

AFP quoted Manohara as telling reporters she was still “traumatised” by what had happened to her after her marriage last year.

She said she secretly called Singaporean police and pleaded for help while she was in the republic.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the Malaysian Government does not want to get involved in the case.

“I think this is more of a personal matter. We should not be dragged into this situation so we want to just leave it as it is,” he told reporters here.

There has been no comment from the Kelantan royal family.

Manohara’s lawyer Yuri Darmas said she would undergo a medical examination to back up her allegations of abuse.

AFP sought more information from the Detikcom news website in Indonesia, which quoted a friend of the prince as saying that the model was allowed to leave voluntarily and he blamed her mother for influencing her to make up stories about him.

The friend, Mohd Soberi Shafii, said she should be examined by a “neutral doctor in Australia, Singapore or London” to support her allegations.