Minister at the Prime Minister's Department Effendi Norwawi will know on April 26 whether the Syariah High Court will allow his ex-wife's application for leave to commit him for contempt of court for alleged failure to fulfill a divorce settlement.

Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court judge Mohamad Shakir Abdul Hamid set the date after advising Syarie lawyer Mohd Rafie Mohd Shafie, who is representing Effendi's ex-wife Farida Effendi to file in additional documents relating to the application.

"You can file an ex-parte leave application so that at this point you don't need to call the respondent (Effendi) to come to court. After the court studies the application and is satisfied to grant leave, it will issue a notice for the respondent's presence in court," said Mohamad Shakir.

The court was also informed that Effendi has since engaged senior Syariah lawyer Mohamad Burok to represent him in the matter.

If the court finds against Effendi, he is liable to be jailed for contempt.

Farida, 55, whose real name is Zariah Hashim, appeared calm. She was seated next to her lawyer throughout the proceedings.

Divorce settlement

Speaking to reporters outside the court, Mohd Rafie said that his client has been forced to institute the committal proceeding as Effendi had not fulfilled the divorce settlement agreement dated Jan 28, 2005.

"He (Effendi) has not fulfilled most of the conditions. We want him to explain why he has not done this and if his explanations are unsatisfactory, we want him to be jailed," he said.

He explained that the agreement formed part of a court ruling dated June 21, 2005 which not only allowed Effendi to pronounce the divorce decree by mutual consent, but also bound the couple to the settlement agreement.

Asked the total worth of the properties involved in the divorce settlement, the lawyer declined to say but hinted that it could run into millions of ringgit.

In the application, a copy of which was made available to malaysiakini, it was alleged that Effendi had wilfully failed to comply with the conditions of the court ruling to cause distress to Farida.

The application listed the 20 properties including their home in Kuching, Sarawak, a townhouse in London and 100 percent of Encorp Utility shares, which the minister had allegedly failed to transfer to Farida's name.

RM200,000 per month

Farida is also seeking compensation of RM200,000 a month beginning last November until the Encorp Utility shares are successfully transferred to her.

In her affidavit, Farida said Effendi's failure to transfer the shares to her name had resulted to a loss of RM200,000 a month.

She claimed that she had no choice but to institute the committal proceedings as she had been informed of alleged concerted efforts by certain parties to frustrate the transfer of shares to her name.

"It has been 14 months since the divorce settlement agreement was signed and eight months since the court allowed the divorce decree. The respondent has made little effort to fulfill the conditions stipulated in the agreement," she said.

The couple was married for 33 years and have three children: Elfida, Elyna and Ezra.

Effendi, re-appointed to the cabinet in the recent reshuffle, is now married to popular actress Tiara Jacqueline.