KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s political secretary Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak has said that he has been made one of the “many scapegoats” to deflect attention from the sex video scandal involving a minister.

He claimed that he got dragged into the scandal after he was not seen at Anwar’s Hari Raya open house event, and was reported missing after the fact was tweeted by controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK).

“My friends told me that RPK said I was missing and they asked whether I was at KLIA [when Haziq was arrested]. It created all this speculation because the story about Haziq and supposedly Azmin is so hot that any ‘scoop’ just gets dramatised and exaggerated.

“For me, RPK is someone who writes good fiction. I just refused to respond. So I was dragged into this and it was made worse by news reports that I was missing,” Farhash reportedly told The Star, adding that he finds the whole situation ludicrous.

He pointed out that he still goes to work, frequents the places he usually hangs out at and even hosted a Hari Raya do in Kuala Kangsar, Perak.

Farhash also called the situation “so absurd”, that he had to pull out CCTV recordings showing his movements just to prove that he was not part of the scandal.

However, he admitted that remaining silent over the whole affair could have been a mistake, especially after it was implied that he was behind the video.

“But I have to admit that early on, when reporters asked me questions through WhatsApp, I refused to answer. I didn’t want to entertain this because anything I said might have been spun against me because of my association with Anwar. So I chose to keep silent.

“So probably that was a mistake,” he reportedly said.

He also denied his boss’ involvement in the scandal, saying that as party president, any attacks on party leaders or members will also tarnish Anwar by association.

Touching on whether or not he believed that Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali was one of the two men in the video, he said the man in the video does resemble Azmin.

Farhash also maintained his stance that if Azmin was truly involved in it, he should do the honourable thing and step down.