Nataya not lawful wife: Embassy

Nataya not lawful wife: Embassy

JAKARTA (JP): The lawyer of murdered painter Basuki Abdullah
told the South Jakarta District Court his marriage to Nataya
Nareerat, a Thai woman, was never registered at the Indonesian
Embassy in Bangkok.

Siti Zaitin Noor presented a telegram from the Indonesia
Embassy in Bangkok in court to prove her argument that the former
Thai beauty queen who had been living with Basuki since 1968 is
not his lawful wife.

"The telegram from our embassy in Bangkok which I received on
July 25 proves the marriage was never reported or registered,"
Siti told the court on Thursday.

The letter was signed by the embassy's counselor director
Nuraini Labde Hamimyar.

Established procedure requires that any person marrying
outside of his or her country must register the nuptial at the
local diplomatic office.

Basuki Abdullah, one of Indonesia's most celebrated painters,
was murdered during a robbery at his house in South Jakarta last
November.

Though the homicide was quickly solved by police, controversy
still shrouds his tragic death. It came to light not long after
his death that just a few months beforehand Basuki had hurriedly
drawn up a will in which the Thai woman was left a mere token of
the Rp 6 billion (US$2.77 million) estate.

A dispute began when the assigned executor to the will, former
minister of education and culture Fuad Hasan, refused the
position claiming he had never been asked to perform the task by
the painter.

Siti then went to court to ask that Mrs. Saraswati
Kouwenhouven, Basuki's Dutch daughter from a previous marriage,
be named as the new executor.

Last month Siti went public saying that the deceased himself
had told her of the fraudulent status of the marriage.

Nataya, represented by lawyer Eddy Danuwidjaya, quickly
challenged the accusations and demanded her lawful rights as a
widow. She presented a photocopy of Thai document which she said
is a marriage license.

But Siti questioned the validity of Nataya's marriage license
despite the fact it carries a stamp from the Royal Thailand
embassy here in Jakarta.

Siti claims that a proper Thai marriage license should have a
blue border and have the year written in Thai rather than the
Latin numbers which appear in Nataya's document.

The trial was adjourned until Wednesday to hear the court
decision on the case. (mds)