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KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian prince on Thursday won a defamation suit against his estranged teenage model wife and mother-in-law for alleging he had sexually abused his spouse, his lawyer said.
Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry, the prince of northern Kelantan state, won by default after the two women failed to file a defence, his lawyer Mohamad Haaziq Pillay told AFP.
"The prince is extremely happy and he said justice has prevailed. Money has never been the question, all he wants is to get his name cleared," he said, adding that the High Court will assess damages at a later date.
Tengku Fakhry launched the 105 billion ringgit (31 billion US dollars) lawsuit in July claiming his US-Indonesian model wife Manohara Odelia Pinot and her mother had defamed him by claiming he had sexually abused the 17-year-old.
In May, Manohara slipped away from the prince's guards at a Singapore hotel and returned to her family in Indonesia with tales of abuse, rape and torture at the hands of the 31-year-old prince.
She later told reporters she was treated like a sex slave after her marriage last year to Tengku Fakhry, whose father is the Sultan of Kelantan.
"Imagine if you were accused of injecting your wife with hormones and cutting her breasts with razors, they have made the prince look like a monster in the eyes of public," Mohamad Haaziq said.
"The prince won the suit because defamation is established in this case by default. We are saying there is ample opportunity for them to come forward to seek justice but they failed to do so -- they chose not to," he added.
The lawyer also said divorce proceedings are still pending in a religious court.
Manohara -- a well-known socialite in Jakarta -- claims to have been cut with a razor and injected with drugs which made her vomit blood while being held under guard in her bedroom at the palace.
Her lawyer said she had filed a police report on the abuse but Indonesian police say they are unable to investigate as the incidents took place outside their jurisdiction.
- AFP/ir
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