Mystery deepens in Malaysia as wife of Sarawak’s Taib Mahmud denies taking him from hospital against doctor’s advice

Raghad Kurdi has refuted allegations that she forcibly removed the state’s longest-serving chief minister from a hospital ICU against his doctor’s orders

Taib’s children have also sued Raghad over the transfer of shares owned by their father to her name in a public listed conglomerate

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Former Sarawak governor Taib Mahmud with his wife Raghad Kurdi. Photo: Instagram/raghadtaib

Published: 1:30pm, 6 Feb 2024Updated: 1:36pm, 6 Feb 2024

The Syrian wife of former Sarawak governor Taib Mahmud has denied that he was forcibly removed from hospital against his doctor’s orders, after police launched a probe into the alleged incident that went viral on Malaysian social media.

Posts of a police report believed to have been filed by Taib’s doctor were widely shared on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Reddit, alleging that his wife, Raghad Kurdi Taib, had removed the 87-year-old from the Normah Medical Specialist Centre in Kuching despite being advised against it on Saturday night.

It is believed Taib was in intensive care when a team that included bodyguards and a butler wheeled him out to a waiting luxury multipurpose vehicle and took him away.

Sarawak police on Monday confirmed that they had received a report regarding the alleged incident, and have launched an investigation.

But the wife of the wealthy Taib, whose business interests mushroomed during his decades at the helm of Sarawak’s politics, has denied the claims.

“That’s not true,” Raghad said on Monday in a reel on Instagram after police announced its probe into allegations that Taib was removed from hospital against his doctor’s advice.