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

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.

The reel included a picture of a near-illegible nursing note dated February 3 – the night when Taib was believed to have been taken out of hospital – which Raghad said “is the proof” to support her claim.

Police said their investigation involves alleged rash or negligent behaviour that endangers human life or personal safety of others, which carries a penalty of up to three months in jail, a maximum 500 ringgit (U$105) fine or both.

Taib was Sarawak’s longest-serving chief minister, leading the state for over 30 years after taking over the post from his uncle in 1981. He was named the state’s governor not long after retiring in 2014.

Taib married a 29-year-old Raghad in 2010, a year after his Polish-born first wife Laila died of cancer at 68.

Taib’s political opponents and rights activists have accused him