The Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court has today granted a temporary stay of its order for Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, the son of the former Sarawak chief minister, to pay RM30 million in mutaah (conciliatory gift) to his former wife Shahnaz A Majid.

Lawyer Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar, for Mahmud Abu Bekir, informed reporters that his client filed the stay application today.

"We obtained a temporary stay of last week's Syariah High Court order which ordered our client to pay RM30 million to his former wife.

"It was granted by registrar Nor Faiz Asfal Abu Bakar who earlier granted leave for my client to file the stay application.

"The temporary stay is until the court hears the proper stay application," said Zainul Rijal.

The lawyer also said that they also filed a notice of appeal on Monday.

It was reported last Wednesday that the Syariah High Court judge Mohamad Abdul Karim Wahab had ordered Mahmud Abu Bekir to pay RM30 million to Shahnaz.

The judge had also ordered that the first of three batches of payment of RM10 million each be paid before March 31.

It was reported last Thursday that Shahnaz, the elder sister to jazz queen Sheila Majid, was entitled to her mutaah claim after 19 years' of marriage, but the judge described what she sought for (RM100 million) as “outrageous”.

The court, 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," Mohamad Abdul Karim said, adding that the court noted the chartered accountant had based his estimate without going to the land owned by Bekir.

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

Despite describing the claim 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.

The Syariah High Court also fixed March 21 as the mention date for Bekir's stay application.