The sister of one of three women allegedly held captive in London for more than three decades has described coming face-to-face with her for the first time in 35 years.
Kamar Mahtum told the BBC’s Today programme her sister, 69-year-old Aishah Wahab, disowned her family in Malaysia in 1968 and “disappeared” in Britain.
She said Ms Wahab, allegedly held in Brixton, told her “there was work to do still”.
Scotland Yard have said the three alleged victims — a British woman, 30, an Irish woman, 57, and Ms Wahab — were part of a “collective” with a shared ideology.
Ms Mahtum said she was “emotional” during the reunion, but her sister “wasn’t that much”.
She told the Radio 4 programme she believed her sister did not reveal many details because police were listening to them. She said: “She never told me where she lived or how she survived.
“She said she had got friends, many friends, who need her.”
Ms Mahtum said her sister had promised to return to Malaysia eventually, adding: “She kept on saying, ‘I have work to do still’.”
Aravindan Balakrishnan and his wife Chanda were arrested two weeks ago as part of the investigation.
