Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry - the unnamed Malaysian Prince who allegedly kidnapped & abused his (unfortunate) wife, Manohara Odelia Pinot

Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry. Yes. That's the name of the mysterious Malaysian prince in the Kelantan royal family who had been accused of kidnapping & abusing his wife, Manohara Odelia Pinot.

I must admit I am a tad annoyed. The article from The New Paper mentioned a lot about how the young wife (in this article, it's said that Manohara Odelia Pinot is a 17-year-old Indonesian-French model, not an Indonesian-American model? Hmm...), the alleged abuses she suffered & her distressed mother being unable to see her.

And yet nothing about the identity of the prince?! How difficult it is to find out the name from the Net or from other newspaper?! Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry would surely never do the stupid thing of suing some foreign newspaper by featuring his name--as long as the word 'alleged' is used, right?

A Malaysian prince in the Kelantan royal family has been accused of kidnapping and abusing his wife who fled from him earlier.

The news emerged after two reports appeared in an Indonesian-language daily since Tuesday.

The report quoted the mother of a 17-year-old Indonesian-French model as saying she feared for her daughter's safety when she was abducted after a pilgrimage with the royal family to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in end of February.

The mother of Ms Manohara Odelia Pinot said her daughter had complained of being abused by her 31-year-old husband ever since she wed him in 2008.

The report said that Ms Manohara - whose father is French and mother is Indonesian - was named as one of Indonesia's top models by Harper's Bazaar.

Mother Daisy Fajarina, 44, told Surya newspaper in Surabaya: 'My child has been tortured, her chest has been cut with a razor. This is what people in the palace who were sympathetic with our plight have told me.'

Mother and daughter had first met the prince in December 2006, when they were invited to attend a dinner with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. The report did not state where the dinner was held.

Said Mrs Daisy: 'He seemed polite. After a few months, he showed a liking to my daughter who was then 15. From what I knew then, he seemed like a good man. Whenever he was in Jakarta, he would ask to take us out.

'He did his prayers, was never rude and seemed gentle. I treated him like a son.'

The two wed in Aug 2008, with the prince giving RM50,000 ($20,000) worth of wedding gifts and dowry. She was then 16 years old.

Abuse

But trouble in the household began soon after. The mother claimed that her daughter was treated roughly by the husband in front of everyone.

In a report, Tempo newspaper said that in an e-mail secretly sent by Ms Manohara, she recounted how she was sexually abused by her husband. 'I had to obey him for my own safety,' she said.

Said Mrs Daisy: 'At one point, she fled to Singapore and made her way back to Jakarta.'

Soon after this, the divorced mother of two said the family received many visitors acting on behalf of the royal family, persuading her to ask Ms Manohara to return to Kelantan.

That was when her family was invited to perform the umrah - a minor pilgrimage - between 25 Feb and 9Mar to reconcile with the royalty.

But when they were to leave Jeddah, Ms Manohara was taken in the same car as her husband, while her mother in another. Manohara was then forced to get inside a private jet, leaving her mother behind.

The anguished mother said she had filed a complaint with the Indonesian embassy in Jeddah after the incident.

She had also tried to travel to Malaysia to track down her daughter but alleged that she was denied entry at the 'request of the Kelantan palace'.

The distraught mother had also sought the help of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry.

The Indonesian Deputy Chief of Mission in Kuala Lumpur, Tatang B Razak, said his office had received the complaint from the victim's family through their lawyer, O C Kaligis.

'At first, we made an informal approach to the family of the sultan of Kelantan,' he said.

However, the effort turned to disappointment when the royal family refused to meet with the Indonesian Embassy official, claiming they were busy.

Mr Tatang said the Kelantan Sultanate has been claiming that Ms Manohara was safe and sound. She is now staying at one of the palaces in the state bordering with Thailand.

Yesterday, 'friendly' photos of her and the prince flooded several blogs, some postings alleging that the controversy is a lie.

Despite this, the Indonesian embassy has sent an official letter to the Malaysian Foreign Affairs Department regarding the case.

'We are waiting for their response,' Mr Tatang said.

From The New Paper, "'Kelantan prince kidnapped top model'".

Anyway, back to the case, it's also said about the 'friendly' photos of Manohara Odelia Pinot and her husband, Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry have flooded the Net. For example in this blog, http://toughlane.blogspot.com/ titled as "Truth Appeared".

The photos do look genuine. Well, perhaps from the happier days of Manohara Odelia Pinot and her husband, Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry. I don't think the alleged abuse (if that did happen) commenced immediately after their marriage.

It usually takes some time for the darkness to leak out to the surface thickly veiled with hypocrisy.

I really hope this case of Manohara Odelia Pinot and her husband, Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry are nothing but a domestic dispute which is blown out of proportional by her mother.

Previously in this case:
- Manohara Odelia Pinot - a young, beautiful, (unfortunately?) married Indonesian-American model...and allegedly abducted by a Malaysian prince?!

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Update: Meanwhile Jakarta Post features an article about how the Indonesian government demands an explanation from the Malaysian government about why Manohara Odelia Pinot's mother was not allowed to see her daughter. Yes, this has become a nation's issue!

The Indonesian government is demanding an explanation from Malaysian as to why an Indonesian woman was denied entry to see her daughter whom she claims is being abused by her husband of Malaysian royalty.

Daisy Fajarini said Malaysian immigration authorities denied her entry in March without explanation when she arrived in Kuala Lumpur from Jakarta. She claimed she was forced to return to Jakarta on the same day.

She said the immigration officers on duty told her they only took orders from their superiors. "I had to immediately return to Jakarta or I had to remain in a detainment room. I had no choice than to return to Jakarta that same day."

She said she arrived in Kuala Lumpur to see her daughter Manohara Odelia Pinot Manohara, a 17-year-old Indonesian model married to Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry, prince of the Kelantan state.

Daisy claimed her daughter had been ill-treated by the prince since they were married in August last year and moved to Malaysia. She has sought the foreign ministry's help to contact her daughter after since being denied entry on March 19.

Foreign ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said in Jakarta on Thursday that the Malaysian government had made a "positive gesture" in offering to facilitate a meeting between Daisy and the prince.

"What we are doing at the moment is trying to arrange for her to visit Malaysia," Faizasyah said. "Because it's a family affair, we hope they will try to solve the spat among themselves first."

A spokesman for the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Widyarka Ryananta, said that the Malaysian government had not yet responded to a request sent on April 17 for clarification about Daisy's entry ban. "We will help any Indonesian citizen having problems in Malaysia in any way we can," he said.

Dewi, Manohara's sister who accompanied Daisy to Kuala Lumpur, said her mother had never before had an issue entering Malaysia. She added that in March immigration officers also refused a doctor's statement which explained her mother wasn't fit to fly that day.

News about the dispute involving the royal family and the alleged domestic violence inflicted against Manohara has made headline news across Indonesian newspapers.

Daisy said the last time she communicated with Manohara was on March 21, when her daughter was crying and could not control herself.

"And we have not been able to contact her since. Whenever we call they refuse to allow Manohara to speak with me," she said.

Dewi said her sister was being abused by her husband, claiming that Manohara once told her that her husband was treating her "with no respect as a wife."

Dewi quoted Manohara as saying, "He treats me like a statue that he thinks he can bring to ceremonies"

From Jakarta Post, "RI demands KL explain ban on anxious mother".