He is the boss of the country’s largest hotel but tonight police confirm that the Princess Hotel’s Executive General Manager Necip Karayusuf is being investigated after an allegation of assault was made against him by a former employee. The allegation is that he cursed and then hit that female employee. It is a she said, he said story but there is a twist to it. Today Keith Swift visited Nasima Reyes to find out what makes this case newsworthy.
Keith Swift Reporting,
It’s hard to forget this image of Assistant Commissioner of Police Crispin Jeffries roughing up Nasima Reyes on Belcan Bridge in the uprising in April of 2005. Well Nasima has been roughed up again and this time she says it was by the executive general manager at the Princess Hotel.
Nasima Reyes, Former Princess Employee
“I was honestly jus t trying to do my job and this man just attacked me, attacked me.”
Two weeks ago she started working as the executive secretary to general manager Negip Karayusuf. But things came to a head on Saturday when she says – he used the word “bitch” to refer to her.
Nasima Reyes,
“He asked me to look up on the website for some information but the website wasn’t giving me the information that he wanted, that he requested and I was trying to explain to him that the page says it doesn’t exist. He was telling me that I wasn’t good for nothing, I don’t know anything, I am a stupid bitch, the word bitch. When he called me a stupid bitch I started to cry.”
Nasima says she left the hotel in tears but on the urging of another senior
manager – returned later on Saturday to pick up her final paycheck.
Nasima Reyes,
“He called me inside the office and he was addressing me and telling me if I just came for vacation or work. I was explaining to him that he was too disrespectful and I don’t want to work for him. He then addressed me about the cell phone, a cell phone that, he asked me first when I started to work if I had a cell phone. I said no. Now he said his secretary needed a phone. So I just ignored the whole situation with the phone. I didn’t expect a phone. One week later he just came and said here’s your phone. So okay I had a phone but I didn’t say anything about it, obviously it was a pass, a hush hush phone. So because I wasn’t answering his calls on the phone, he said it was better I just leave the phone. I said you know what sir, I don’t want to talk to you anymore, I don’t want to hear anything you have to say so I was leaving. Upon me exiting his office into my office to get my stuff off my desk to leave, he came behind me and his hand went to my jaw like that, like hitting me.”
Nasima left and went to the police but she says they didn’t take her report seriously.
Nasima Reyes,
“The officer that took my stat4ment, he was shaking his head and saying like it is a dead end because he says that money talks in this world and there’s nothing we could do about it.”
Well today Negip wasn’t talking – at least not to us. He sent two senior managers to tell me he had no comment because the matter was in the hands of the police. Of course this isn’t the first time the now 21 year old Nasima has been roughed up by a man in a powerful position. So is she somehow a target? I asked her.
Keith Swift,
Why is it trouble seems to find you?
Nasima Reyes,
“That’s a good question. That’s a really good question because I was honestly just trying to be professional doing my job and these people just feel, I guess it is just men trying to advantage of the women in society. I don’t know what to say. That is my explanation – men trying to take advantage of the situation. I don’t know why I am the target but I don’t know.”
Again police say they are investigating. While Karausuf declined to speak to us, he did give police a statement.
