Mahmud Bekir Taib, the son of former Sarawak chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, has been ordered to pay his ex-wife Shahnaz A Majid RM30 million in mutaah (conciliatory gift).

This is by far the largest known payout for a mutaah case.

In making the ruling, Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court judge Mohamad Abdul Karim Wahab said the court wanted the payments to be made in three instalments comprising RM10 million each.

The judge ordered that the first payment be made by March 31 and the subsequent payments by Sept 30 this year.

The court further ruled that Shahnaz was entitled to her mutaah claim but described what she sought for as “outrageous”.

The judge however accepted the testimony of Shahnaz's expert witness, chartered accountant Andrew Heng, although the court admitted his testimony was weak as there were some gaps in his estimate.

"The defendant (Bekir) or his lawyers had failed to attack on the loopholes," he said, adding that the court noted the chartered accountant based his estimate without going to the said land owned by Bekir.

Heng had testified that Taib's son was estimated to be worth between RM916 million to RM1.4 billion.

Despite the court describing the claim made by Shahnaz as outrageous, Abdul Karim said the court based the estimated payout on Bekir's affordability and his credit card expenses which were close to RM1 million a month.

Shahnaz, the elder sister of jazz queen Sheila Majid, was seeking RM100 million from her ex-husband.

She is also seeking another RM500 million in joint matrimonial assets claim.

The couple were married on Jan 9, 1992 but had lived separately since 1999. They were officially divorced on May 11, 2011. They have a 23-year-old son.

Abdul Karim who took 40 minutes to read the judgment also ruled that Shahnaz ( photo ) has met all the three conditions to claim the amount.

These are on whether mutaah was compulsory to be paid by the defendant, the appropriate rate of payment and whether Shahnaz had proven her case against her former husband.

He said a total of 137 exhibits were tendered and three independent witnesses were called by the plaintiff to testify.

The judge said in Islam it is compulsory to pay mutaah so as to allow the former wife to begin a new life and as compensation for the dishonour ( aib ) following the divorce.

He said the religion stipulated 30 dirham as the minimum payment for mutaah or an amount which the husband can afford.

“The court could not accept the Bukit Damansara home and three cars as mutaah payment as it is considered as ' pemberian tersirat ' (implied gift). It cannot be considered as mutaah ,” the judge said.

Judge lashed out at Bekir

Abdul Karim also lashed out at the defendant for abandoning ( gantung tak bertali ) Shahnaz for 10 years.

“This abandonment ( pengabaian ) can't be treated lightly ( enteng ). Her opportunities to lead a new life was hampered as she was left ' gantung tak bertali ' (abandoned) for 10 years,” he said.

“This abandonment was as if it would result in her leading a life alone for a long time ( kesunyian hidup masa panjang ) when she was still the lawful wife,” the judge said in his ruling.

In considering the award, Abdul Karim said Shahnaz came from a well-standing family as her father was a former director-general of the Forestry Department, and the defendant the son of former Sarawak chief minister.

The court noted that she helped set up Sarawak Securities (with her qualifications with a first degree in Economics and a Masters in Finance) before retiring to take care of the family.

The decision today partly ends her five-year pursuit of justice after she filed the application in the middle of June 2011.

Shahnaz was represented by lawyers Akberdin Abdul Kader and Dr Rafie Mohd Shafie while senior lawyer Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar and Saadiah Din appeared for Bekir.