Malaysian police expect to complete investigations into a series of sex videos involving a young politician and an older man resembling a cabinet minister “next week or the week after”, the country’s police chief said.
Last week, the country was rocked by the release of several sex videos, followed by a bold confession by a 27-year-old politician, Muhammad Haziq Abdul Aziz, who admitted to being the younger man in the video.
Haziq, a member of the ruling People’s Justice Party (PKR), named Economics Affairs Minister Azmin Ali as the partner who appeared in the video with him, and claimed the minister was unfit to hold any government position.
Haziq was arrested last Friday while trying to leave the country for the Philippines. He was released on bail the next day.
Police said their investigations were ongoing.
“We don’t want to delay things. Once [investigations] are completed, we will forward to the attorney general’s chambers for them to deliberate,” Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador told the South China Morning Post, adding that investigations would be completed “as soon as possible”.
Hamid said the probe would be conducted professionally, without any interference from “outside”.
Police earlier said some 17 reports have been made over the case.
Azmin has denied he was the person in the video and said it was a “nefarious plot” to damage his reputation and destroy his political career. The minister is seen as a rising star in the government and within his PKR party, of which he is deputy president.
He told local media on Tuesday he was “convinced” the video was linked to his political performance.
“From the beginning, I was certain that this was a political agenda by certain quarters to block the progress of my performance in the government and in politics,” the Star reported him as saying.
His lawyer also confirmed on Tuesday that Azmin made a statement to police on Sunday and reiterated the claim that “the notorious fake sex videos” were “a slanderous and politically motivated attack”.
“There are obvious signs of an organised and systematic attempt to discredit and bring down the minister with this false and malicious attack,” Azmin’s lawyer said.
“The perpetrators had access to leaked personal data of party members, sophisticated means and a clear political agenda. We trust the police will get to the bottom of this soon, and identify and take action against the culprits according to law.”
PKR is headed by prime minister-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim, whom Azmin once served as his aide. Azmin is now seen as a potential challenger to Anwar.
Anwar has rubbished accusations his party may be behind the video leak and said all four factions in the ruling coalition have agreed he would be the next prime minister.
“Some people say it’s because he [Azmin] is a threat, but we already have an agreement on my position and the PM himself said this as recently as last week,” he told reporters last Saturday.
For four days, the country has been agog, haunted and hounded by the Haziq sex video. – MP Lim Kit Siang
A senior member of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s Malaysian United Indigenous Party (PBBM) hinted the mastermind of the plot to discredit Azmin has been disclosed to the police.
“If only you knew what Haziq Aziz told the police about who gave him ‘the lighter to burn Datuk Seri Azmin’, Malaysia’s political arena will continue to shake,” former foreign minister Rais Yatim wrote on Facebook.
“The police must have already told the PM about who are the masterminds behind Haziq. Come, let us clean up the country’s politics. Raise up good people,” said Rais, who is PBBM’s supreme council member.
The sex video scandal implicating Azmin could be the greatest challenge facing the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition since it took office last year, senior MP Lim Kit Siang said.
“For four days, the country has been agog, haunted and hounded by the Haziq sex video implicating a minister, which demonstrates its potency to destroy the Pakatan Harapan coalition and derail the PH’s ‘New Malaysia’ agenda,” Lim said.
“There is no doubt that the Haziq sex video is the greatest challenge to Pakatan Harapan since the 14th general election in May last year, and PH leaders must unite to forge ahead and not to be derailed from the New Malaysia agenda.”
