As a trained officer with the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan), she set up a rehabilitation centre for the critically endangered apes.
However, she was dismissed from the department in 2017 and was told to hand over the primates to the department as she was no longer a public servant.
She took legal action over the matter but even with the case still before the courts, Perhilitan officers raided the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (Grep) in Pahang and her lawyer is incensed.
Grep founder Mariani shared videos with FMT which show the Perhilitan staff with police officers at the scene since yesterday.
With the 10-hour raid by Perhilitan yesterday and today’s raid since 10am to seize six gibbons in Raub, Mariani fears that all her good work to rehabilitate the apes will go to waste.
Lawyer Jessica Binwani said Mariani learnt skills in rehabilitating the primates when working with Perhilitan since 2007 and she started looking after the gibbons in 2013.
“But she was dismissed from the department in 2017 and was told to hand over the primates to the department,” said Binwani.
Mariani took Perhilitan to court for unfair dismissal and to leave the primates under her care. This is because Mariani or Bam, as she is commonly known, had started the rehabilitation process on the baby primates.
“They were babies when they were handed to her (Mariani). Gibbons take time to be rehabilitated and to overcome the trauma of being taken away from their mothers.
“They have to be under rehabilitation until they are ready to be released into the wild, and to survive independently,” said Binwani.
She said the High Court had ordered that Bam be reinstated in Perhilitan. However, she said Perhilitan filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal on Nov 16.
“At the Court of Appeal, we asked for a temporary stay until we could take the matter to Federal Court. The court said we would have to make a formal application for a stay.
“But we can’t make an application in a vacuum. We have to file for leave from the Federal Court (first),” she explained, adding that they have yet to apply for a stay on the Court of Appeal decision but have informed the court of their intention to do so.
“In our opinion, the status quo should remain. Let us file the formal application and let it be heard. Everybody knows that we are going to file the application for a stay and the Court of Appeal had ordered us to do so.
“Why the rush to take the gibbons now? Why the rush to move them from a place where they are already safe and well taken care of?” Binwani asked.
FMT contacted Perhilitan director-general Kadir Abu Hashim for comments on the raid. He replied with: “Noted tq”.
The rehabilitation centre, donated by the public, was set up to rescue gibbons from trafficking. Gibbons are known to have strong family bonds and protective instincts, and when poachers target the babies, the whole tribe is known to get together and fight fiercely to save the baby.