An American-Indonesian model claims she has escaped an abusive marriage to an Malaysian prince.
- AFP
Manohara Odelia Pinot, 17, told reporters that 31 year-old Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry, the prince of Malaysia’s Kelantan state, raped and tortured her during the 10 months she was married to him.
Pinot says she was able to escape him through help of Singaporean police. She is now back with her family in Jakarta.
“I’ve been treated like an animal. I’m like his property and I was in his room and whenever he wants to play with me he just goes into the room and plays with me. I’m like an object,” she said.
Pinot’s mother, Daisy Fajarina, says she will press charges and has accused the Indonesian and Malaysian governments for covering up the 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,” Fajarina told AFP on Monday.
“No parent could be silent if their child was treated in such a barbaric way.”
Pinot married the prince in a “fairy tale” wedding last August. She was once considered Indonesia’s 100 Precious Women.
However, things didn’t go preciously early on. In October, Pinot returned home and complained about her husband, only to be kidnapped and taken back to Malaysia in February.
Pinot claims she was subject to a “daily routine” of abuse, and allegedly forced, under threat of torture, to maintain a happy facade at public events. She claimed she was guarded in her bedroom and whenever she complained, was injected with drugs that made her vomit blood.
“I am still traumatized by all that happened and it has left an impact on me.”
“Sexual abuse and sexual harassment were like a daily routine for me, and he did that every time I did not want to have sexual intercourse,” Pinot was quoted as saying in The Jakarta Globe.
“I could never think a normal man could do such things.”
Pinot claims she called the Singaporean police when the royal family went there for the medical treatment of Fakhry’s father.
“The police told Fakhry that he would be held in jail if he did not let me go. No one could force me against my will in Singapore and I knew I had a chance to escape,” she said.
Pinot seized her chance by pressing the emergency button in an elevator in the Royal Plaza Hotel. Her bodyguards did not chase her since they knew it would be caught on security cameras.
Pinto blasts the Indonesian embassy in Malaysia, saying: “They made it worse by telling lies, saying that I was fine while I was suffering in Kelantan.”
Indonesia says it is promising to help the model. Her lawyer says she will undergo a medical examination to back up her claims of abuse.
Malaysian royals used to be above the law, until 1993 when a new law came into effect.
But Muhyiddin Yassin, Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, said the government would not investigate the allegations.
“I think this is more of a personal matter,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. ” To date we have not been dragged into it, so we want to leave it as it is.”
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