Manohara Odelia Pinot. She is young (she’s only 17!), she is beautiful (she’s a model after all!), and she is a mystery (unfortunately in a negative sense: she’s allegedly abducted by a Malaysian prince?!).

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak dodged questions about the alleged abduction of a young model by a Malaysian prince as he met Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta on Thursday.

Reporters covering the press conference after the leaders met at the presidential palace were refused permission to ask about the case of 17-year-old Indonesian-American model Manohara Odelia Pinot.

As they fielded approved questions about closer bilateral relations and economic cooperation, Miss Manohara’s mother held an emotional press conference of her own to plead with Mr Najib for help in finding her socialite daughter.

Miss Manohara married last year to Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry, the prince of Malaysia’s Kelantan state.

Her mother, Daisy Fajarina, said her daughter had suffered ‘emotional and physical abuse’ at the hands of her husband, who was holding her against her will in Malaysia.

She said she had been refused entry to Malaysia to see her daughter, who was crying and distraught when she last spoke to her Indonesian family by phone from Malaysia on March 21.

‘As the new prime minister of Malaysia I urge Najib to investigate to defend our rights and the truth,’ Mdm Fajarina told reporters at the offices of the national human rights commission.

‘I just want my daughter to be set free… As a mother I have a right to see my daughter.’

She fainted when she was mobbed by journalists from Indonesia’s celebrity press, who have written extensively about Miss Manohara’s plight.

From Straits Times, “Najib dodges queries on model“.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak dodged questions about the alleged abduction of a young model by a Malaysian prince as he met Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta on Thursday.

Reporters covering the press conference after the leaders met at the presidential palace were refused permission to ask about the case of 17-year-old Indonesian-American model Manohara Odelia Pinot.

As they fielded approved questions about closer bilateral relations and economic cooperation, Manohara’s mother held an emotional press conference of her own to plead with Najib for help in finding her socialite daughter.

Manohara last year married Tengku Temenggong Mohammad Fakhry, the prince of Malaysia’s Kelantan state.

Her mother, Daisy Fajarina, said Manohara had suffered “emotional and physical abuse” at the hands of her husband, who was holding her against her will in Malaysia.

“As the new prime minister of Malaysia I urge Najib to investigate to defend our rights and the truth,” Fajarina told reporters at the offices of the national human rights commission.

“I just want my daughter to be set free… As a mother I have a right to see my daughter.”

She said she had been refused entry to Malaysia to see Manohara, who was crying and distraught when she last spoke to her Indonesian family by phone on March 21.

“I was already in the airport but immigration officials told me that I was strictly forbidden to enter Malaysian territory,” she said, referring to an incident on March 19.

Fajarina said the last time she saw Manohara was when she accompanied the couple on a pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia in late February. The teen bride was already unhappy with her new husband and the trip was supposed to be a fence-mending exercise for the family, she said.

But it ended in anger and confusion when the prince abandoned Fajarina at an airport in Jeddah and whisked her daughter away in his private jet.

“My daughter was taken away forcibly in a private jet from Jeddah … I was on the passenger list and my personal stuff was already in the plane, but the jet took off without me and left me on the runaway,” she said.

She also accused the royal family of trying to bribe her to forget about Manohara with a million-dollar apartment in Malaysia.

“I cannot accept that. Even if they give me the world, I cannot sell my beloved daughter,” she said.

Fajarina fainted when she was mobbed by journalists from Indonesia’s celebrity press, who have written extensively about Manohara’s plight.

Indonesia’s ambassador to Malaysia, Da’i Bachtiar, said he had spoken to the royal household in Kelantan and received word that Manohara was fine.

But they refuse to allow her mother to visit and the Malaysian foreign ministry has not replied to further inquiries, he told AFP.

“I have communicated with the Kelantan sultanate. They said Manohara is healthy and fine. We asked about the wishes of her mother but there was a rejection of her visit to Malaysia,” Bachtiar said.

“We’ve addressed questions officially to the Malaysian foreign affairs ministry, but there’s been no answer yet. We’ve addressed the questions in order to give protection to an Indonesian citizen.”

Najib was sworn in earlier this month after his predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was forced to stand down.

He has repeatedly denied involvement in the gruesome murder in 2006 of 28-year-old Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu, the lover of his close aide.

The aide was acquitted of abetting her murder but two police officers have been sentenced to hang for the slaying of the young woman, whose remains were blown up with military-grade explosives in a jungle clearing.

From Asiaone, “Malaysian PM dodges questions about missing model“.

A member of the Kelantan royalty has hit the news in Indonesia for allegedly kidnapping and torturing his model wife, reported Kosmo!

Manohara Odelia Pinot, 17, from Indonesia was said to have been tortured by her husband, 31, including suffering cuts on her chest.

She had married him in a rushed wedding on Aug 26 last year.

A report by the Indonesian daily Surya said a local online news portal carried the story quoting an inside source from the palace, who notified Manohara’s mother.

The mother claimed that Manohara was taken by force in a private jet from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, last month after completing the umrah.

Mother Daisy Fajarina, 44, told Surya newspaper in Surabaya: “My child has been tortured, her chest has been cut with a razor. This is what people in the palace who were sympathetic with our plight have told me.”

In a report, Tempo newspaper said that in an email secretly sent by Ms Manohara, she recounted how she was sexually abused by her husband. “I had to obey him for my own safety,” she said.

Surya reported that the model’s whereabouts were unknown.

From Asiaone, “M’sian royalty allegedly kidnapped top model“.

In 2008, the young Manohara Pinot, mix Indonesian and French, adopted two children – one with special needs – to be taken care of at her house. She calls Cannes her home and Jakarta her ‘new’ home but ended up in Kelantan as the wife of a prince who is said to be keeping her locked in the palace.

Prime Minister Najib Razak was spared the embarassement of answering to the questions of the eager and angry Indonesian press at a press conference at Jakarta during his brief visit to Indonesia. Reports from Indonesia indicates that the high profile model’s case – which is one between a young husband and a too young wife – is a ‘national’ affair and can disrupt the good relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia.

Who is the beautiful model Manohara Pinot and what really happened to her?

Indonesian websites and socialite blogs are today buzzing with the big question: What really happened to Manohara, the darling of all Indonesia!

In some case, stories of how she is being mistreated at the Kelantan Palace by her husband is reported with crude details and a website even suggested that Manohara was not treated like a wife but like an object. “She was even made to have sex while in menstruation, which is unacceptable and a horrible thing to do,” said the webmaster.

Reporters covering the press conference with Najib in Jakarta, after the leaders met at the presidential palace, were refused permission to ask about the case of 17-year-old Indonesian-American model Manohara Odelia Pinot.

A startling allegation recently surfaced in an Indonesian newspaper about a member of the Kelantan royal household, who is said to have ‘abducted and abused’ his 17-year-old Indonesian model wife (Manohara). According to the Surya newspaper, the family of Manohara Odelia Pinot are now in the dark as to her whereabouts and fear for her safety.They also claimed that the model, who was named as one of the country’s top models by an international magazine, was cut with a razor blade by her husband.Her mother Daisy Fajarina said the royalty had forcefully taken her daughter away in a private jet from Saudi Arabia, where the family had gone to perform the umrah last month.