Sunday 20 September 2009

Malaysian royalty claims Johor Sultan’s grandson assaulted him

Claiming assault by the grandson of the Sultan of Johor which resulted in a fractured nose, a member of Malaysia’s royal family yesterday has gone public a year after the incident.

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Guanyu said...

Malaysian royalty claims Johor Sultan’s grandson assaulted him

By PAULINE NG
18 September 2009

Claiming assault by the grandson of the Sultan of Johor which resulted in a fractured nose, a member of Malaysia’s royal family yesterday has gone public a year after the incident.

‘My friends and I were viciously assaulted by the Raja Muda of Johor Tunku Ismail Idris Abdul Majid Abu Bakar Iskandar bin Tunku Ibrahim while armed with a gun, and his bodyguards,’ Tunku Nadzimuddin Tunku Mudzaffar said at a press conference yesterday, saying that he wanted to see justice done.

Together with his parents and wife, Tunku Nadzimuddin read from a prepared statement narrating the events of that weekend in October when partying with friends. He alleged he was assaulted for reasons still unknown to him, abducted at gun-point and held captive in a hotel room until his mother Tunku Naquiah Tuanku Ja’afar rescued him. Also galling to the Negeri Sembilan royal family is the lack of police action despite previous assurances that the assailants would be charged. They indicated the attorney-general had suggested the matter be settled out of court.

The 37-year old Tunku Nadzimuddin said he did not know the reason for the alleged beating. According to him, he was out with his then-girlfriend (now wife) and friends at a club when a bottle was thrown hitting his friend Shamshuddinhuha Ishak. Later, he received a call from Tunku Ismail asking to meet in a five-star hotel so he could apologise. Instead, he claimed he and his friends were pistol-whipped.

The public airing of the altercation is certain to titillate Malaysians, but it will also bring back memories of the early 1990s when stories of royal indiscretions were grist for the newspapers until the constitutional amendments to royal immunity were enacted. But whether it is likely to lead to any action is less certain given the authorities’ reluctance to proceed despite the victim’s royal status.

‘The law has to take its course unless you say in this country that the law doesn’t function,’ his lawyer Puravalen Muthu Raman told reporters.

Malaysia’s Sultans are no longer immune from prosecution under constitutional reforms in the early 1990s but can be tried only in a special court. Other members of royalty can be prosecuted under normal laws.

Criminal charges against Tunku Ismail - the second in line to the Johor throne and a former officer in the Indian army - would help Tunku Nadzimuddin’s civil case against the former, his mother said. While they were looking for ‘closure’, she said justice must also be done. Asked about talk of compensation, Tengku Naquiah replied: ‘I said my son is priceless.’ Subsequent to that however, she conceded that their lawyer had sent a letter of demand for RM50 million (S$20.3 million) but had not received any response. According to her, Tunku Ismail’s mother had apologised for her son’s actions when she had telephoned to complain.

Mr. Shamshuddinhuha also claimed he was assaulted in the incident - witnessed by the hotel security which did not intervene - and knocked unconscious, in the process losing two teeth. The 40-year old lawyer is also contemplating legal action.

A unit trust manager, Tunku Nadzimuddin - described by his mother as shy and humble - revealed he had been undergoing treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the time of the altercation with the prince whom he said he did not know and had ‘never met before.’

Another royal controversy this year involved the Kelantan prince Tengku Mohamad Fakhry Petra and his 17-year old Indonesian model wife Manohara Odelia Pinot who ‘escaped’ from him while in Singapore. Her allegations of abuse have been denied by the prince.