Whistleblower website Sarawak Report has claimed its photographer was assaulted last Tuesday by an employee of the Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's family for taking pictures of people going in and out of their posh apartment in London's uptown Hyde Park.

NONE In its latest in a series of exposes on the family, Sarawak Report said one of the Taib family's drivers, a chauffer of their black Mercedes, grabbed the photographer by the neck.

This after the chief minister's son Sulaiman Abdul Rahman - who is also Kota Samarahan MP and former deputy tourism minister - spotted the photographer and pointed her out to employees who came out of the building to identify her.

Moments later, Sulaiman’s driver allegedly "assaulted" the photographer, grabbed her and forced her to erase the photographs contained in her camera until she was rescued by an onlooker.

"It is clear that despite their public position, the Taibs do not appreciate our publicising of their whereabouts or possessions," said Sarawak Report .

"The matter is now being investigated as an assault by the police.  This kind of brutality, though regularly meted out to members of the public under Taib in Sarawak, is strictly prohibited in the UK," it added.

Later on the same day, the photographer said she saw someone who looked like Taib Mahmud, who had left Sarawak for Mecca to perform the Haj (pilgrimage), entering the apartment block.

NONE The latest article by Sarawak Report also directed the spotlight on Hampshire House ( right ), the grand building overlooking the world-famous Hyde Park containing some of the largest apartments in London, including allegedly the ground floor apartment of Taib’s family.

"The ground floor apartment used by the Taibs is worth around £8.5 million (RM43 million) and measures over 4,000 square feet.

"A sense of its grandeur can be gained by looking at the pictures of a neighbouring flat that was recently put on the market at this price.

"All the Taib family are known to regularly use the building and it is likely that they own or have access to more than just one of the flats, since so many are able to reside there at one time," claimed the Sarawak Report .

NONE The website had earlier written on the links between the Taib family and about a dozen other luxury property units in UK , Canada , US , Paris and other locations around the world.

"According to the official Land Registry, the public owner of the property is Sultan Abdul Halim Mu-Adzam, the Malaysian contact of the Taibs who invested Onn with his title of Datuk.

"The relationship between the two families and who really holds the possession of one of London’s smartest properties is clearly a matter of public interest.  

"The chief minister, given his official salary over the past 30 years, should never (have been) able to afford such a residence, yet in fact this is just one of a string of such properties that the Taibs do own," said the Sarawak Report .

Taib, who has ruled Sarawak since 1981, is speculated to be among Malaysia's richest , with business interests in a variety of industries locally and abroad.

Most prominent of the Taib family companies is conglomerate Cahaya Mata Sarawak Bhd, which constructed much of the state's infrastructure.