Ivica @ Adam Kalebic     Siti Mariam binte Isa

Bandar Seri Begawan - Leading restaurateur, Ivica @ Adam Kalebic, 62, allegedly threatened to carve out the liver of his wife Siti Mariam binte Isa and eat it rather than consenting to a divorce, the Bandar Seri Begawan Magistrates Court heard yesterday. He swore to god he would never give her one, he would rather kill her, his wife alleged.

In the dock is Ivica, who runs the top-end Fratini's Restaurant chain, married to Mariam for 19 years, charged with strangling, punching, kicking and stubbing his wife with a lit cigarette butt midnight of June 11, 2005 during a domestic quarrel.

Siti Mariam is alleging that she suffered facial scars and had to consult a plastic surgeon in Singapore.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Suriana Radin is appearing for the prosecution.

Yesterday was the fourth day of hearing of the high profile case involving the well known personalities and an attempt by the prosecution to hold the hearing behind closed doors was denied by Chief Magistrate Abdullah Soefri last Saturday, in the face of objections from Defence Counsel Yusof Halim.

At the start of the cross examination of Siti Mariam yesterday, she was not pleased to be addressed as Ms Mariam and insisted that she be addressed as Ms Isa.

She then disagreed with Counsel Yusof Halim that she is usually not as soft spoken as she had portrayed herself to be when giving evidence-inchief and said that the defendant, her husband, separated from her since 2004 was 'absolutely' wrong in believing that she was louder than what she has attempted to portray in court.

Siti Mariam was taken through the evidence she had given before. She said on that day, June 11, 2005, she had just come down after changing into her dressing gown and was listening to music and having a cigarette.

She was also having a glass of water and nothing else. The prosecutor immediately protested when the witness was asked whether she drinks.

The court said that the questioning was pertaining to the incident and asked what relevance it has whether she drinks when she had said that she was having water then.

To that Counsel Yusof Halim said that he will prove that she was drunk that night. When the question was put to her again, Mariam said "on occasions I have had drinks" and said that on that night she believed that Ivica was partly drunk.

It was a quiet night and three of the children were home. The elder daughter had a friend, Fedora Chong, staying over for the night. They had two maids then.

Emma Diaz, the maid, was in her room, which is about three to five metres away, while the other domestic helper's (Annalene Ducante) room is eight to 10 metres away.

At several instances when giving evidence, Siti Mariam had to be reminded to answer the questions that were asked.

The Chief Magistrate told her that she must answer the question asked and if the prosecutor feels that there should be any elaboration of her answers then the prosecutor will ask her that question giving her the opportunity to elaborate.

There were also occasions when it was difficult to hear her giving evidence as the microphone was not turned on by the witness. At one point the defendant addressed the court and protested that he could not hear what was being said. The court then reminded the defence counsel that his client must ask for permission to speak.

Mariam said that she told her six-year-old daughter that she could not live with the father anymore because of his verbal abuse and also because he had many 'secret relationships'. She insisted that she used the words 'secret relationships' when telling her six-year-old daughter.

Mariam said that her husband firstly strangled her with both his hands. She described this as a "frenzied attack" and that he stranged her so strongly that she could not breathe.

She said that she could not do anything as she was pinned down. When asked whether she was kicking with her legs to defend herself, she said she could not do this as her legs were under a table and that her top priority was to survive and she was not really thinking about her legs.

The husband then hit her on the side which she described as "karate chops". He then went back across the table which was about three feet from Mariam.

He threw an ashtray towards her which missed but the hot cigarette ash hit her on the face blackening it.

Then Ivica came towards Mariam again .and stubbed her with a lit cigarette "again and again and again". As Mariam was walking along the corridor towards the house, Ivica pounced on her and punched her many times with his clenched fists. He then pushed her down, and kicked her repeatedly.

Mariam agreed that during the incident there were lots of commotion with the children and her screaming and Ivica shouting. She also agreed that the various stages of the assault were witnessed by a total of five people, three of whom were her Children.

She only lodged a police report on October 17, 2005, more than four months after the incident which she alleged occurred on June 11, 2005.

She said that the delay was because she initially wanted to keep this a private matter, secondly she had to report as her husband continued to threaten her and finally because she had no time to lodge a report as she was doing a lot of travelling then.

She said that after the incident and prior to her lodging a police report four months later, she had received several calls from Ivica when she was in Australia threatening that he would "come and get me" and was "going to break down the door".

She also alleged that her husband, after the incident, had threatened to carve out her liver and eat it and threatened to kill her. She related two incidents in Brunei after the alleged assault when Ivica put up his middle finger towards her.

The Defence Counsel then showed two police, statements that Siti Mariam had made. The first was recorded on October 17 2005, the date she lodged the report.

In that statement she made no mention of any threats by the defendant after the incident. She had said in that statement that she was making the report as she feared being threatened "in the future".

In the second statement she made to the police on December 12, 2005, she categorically stated that the defendant had not made any threats to her after the report.

There were occasions, she said, when she received calls in the night which she did not answer. This, however, seemed to contradict a November 2005 police report that she had lodged complaining that her husband had made calls to her in a "scary voice" in order to put fear in her.

She was also shown that in her police report of October 17, 2005, she made no allegation that the defendant had hit her left and right.

When she said she was pushed in the report, she meant that her husband had hit her, she said.

She also accepted that she did not say in the report that her husband punched her or threw an ashtray towards her. She said that she did not go into details when giving the report.

Defence counsel Yusof Halim then took her through her police statement where she elaborated on her complaints, which again showed that no such complains were made.

Counsel Yusof then countered her allegation that she delayed making the report as she had no time to do so as she was flying around.

She conceded that she was in Brunei for 10 days between July 10 and July 20, 2005 and she had 10 more days before leaving for Perth, Australia.

She came back to Brunei on September 24, 2005 and made the report on October 17, 2005.

Siti Mariam confirmed that there were no other reasons for making the late reports besides the three reasons she had given, namely that she had wanted this to be a private matter for the sake of the children, that she had no time to lodge a report as she was travelling around and finally although she had not initially wanted to make a report, her husband's continuing threats to her after the incident made her decide to lodge the report.

At this stage, the defence counsel asked for the hearing to be adjourned for the day as he was feeling under the weather. The hearing will continue tomorrow at 9.15 am.-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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