CIK Puan Temenggong Kelantan Manohara Odelia, 17, and her mother were dealt another major blow yesterday when their lawyers abandoned them in the RM105 million defamation suit by her husband, Tengku Temenggong Kelantan Tengku Muhammad Fakhry.

Their legal firm succeeded in discharging itself from representing Manohara and her mother, Daisy Fajarina, on grounds that the defendants did not extend their full cooperation.

This, they said, made it difficult for the firm to prepare the relevant documents to defend their case and deemed the information they got so far as “hearsay”.

The discharge order has to be served on Manohara and her mother, Daisy, 44, who are now in Indonesia, before Oct 28. Mohd Haaziq Pillay, lawyer for Tengku Muhammad Fakhry, said if the pair were to appoint a new counsel, they would have 14 days to file their defence, failing which a judgment in default could be obtained.

In the suit filed on July 20, the Kelantan prince is suing his wife and mother-in-law, claiming that they had falsely and maliciously defamed him in allegations they made at news conferences between April and June this year, about Manohara being abused.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed their legal firm to discharge itself just as news emerged that “missing” businessman Datuk Kadar Shah Sulaiman Ninam Shah who helped Manohara escape from her “abusive” Kelantan prince husband was in Singapore.

Although Kadar Shah is not implicated in the on-going suits filed by Tengku Fakhry in the civil and syariah courts against his wife and mother-in-law, he could be called to testify if they go to trial. Kadar Shah had taken the credit that with the blessings of the Kelantan palace he was the “negotiator” in Manohara’s escape on May 31 from Singapore to Indonesia.

The Society of The Kelantan Royalty later clarified that Kadar Shah was “not a member of the society and has no relation or connection”.

Attempts by Malay Mail to contact Kadar Shah in Singapore yesterday failed. Kadar Shah has been abroad
since June 20. Even after his bungalow in Shah Alam was broken into and his maid allegedly gang-raped he has not returned home.

He had said he was in the US to attend his children’s graduation and on business.  Police are puzzled over Kadar Shah’s reluctance or urgency to assist with investigations. They are unable to ascertain what was
taken during the robbery.

After recently ending up the loser in a nine-year court battle with businessman Mohammed Norlizam Jailani involving a RM1 million loan, Kadar Shah has to deal with another matter involving his wife.

This time around, it involves a multi-million ringgit claim by his former wife Datin Fauziah Haron who has filed a claim for her rights under syariah law for alimony, maintenance, return of debts as well as compensation.

The Kuala Lumpur Syariah Court has fixed Nov 5 for hearing. Kadar Shah and Fauziah were married in Jakarta in 1980 but their marriage was never registered here. The couple have three children — two boys aged 28 and
25 and a 23-year-old daughter.

The marriage with Fauziah was said to be Kadar Shah’s second marriage. He had earlier been married to an Australian woman.