KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 — Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali has in many instances, kept both journalists and political observers on the edge of their seats when it comes to his one, or two-liner coded Twitter retorts, especially in the face of intense infighting in PKR.
Today was no exception, when the Economic Affairs Minister tweeted a mere: “Alhamdulillah syukur” (Alhamdulillah, grateful), via his Twitter handle Mohamed Azmin Ali @AzminAli.
His tweet came just moments after the Inspector-General of Police, Datuk Seri Abdul Hamid Bador, released a statement, hinting that the police have closed in on the identity of a politician, alleged to be behind several sex videos implicating Azmin.
Abdul Hamid though not explicitly naming anyone, said that the leader of a political party, had spent ‘hundreds of thousands of ringgit’ for the videos.
He said that the money was spent with the aim of tarnishing a certain leader’s reputation.
“The result of PDRM’s investigations revealed that there is a notorious pact led by the leader of a political party, aimed at embarrassing and tarnishing the reputation of a certain individual.
“The videos which were spread with the intention to provoke people’s anger, was produced by a party, who was paid hundreds of thousands of ringgit,” Abdul Hamid said.
On Tuesday afternoon, police arrested three men in Johor, one of them identified as the PKR’s Perak leader and political secretary to its president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak.
The 37-year-old was picked-up with two other men, aged 28 and 34, by a joint federal police team at a house in Bandar Seri Alam in Masai, near Pasir Gudang.
Investigations were conducted under Section 377B, Section 292 of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
Following Farhash’s arrest, Anwar yesterday had told Azmin to resign from the Cabinet post immediately if he is indeed found to be the other man in the viral sex video said to feature PKR’s former Santubong Youth chief, Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz.
On Sunday night, Haziq and the five suspects were arrested in a police operation at multiple locations in the Klang Valley to assist investigations under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. Two have been identified as PKR members.
A day before that, Abdul Hamid announced that investigators have learned the identities of those behind the sex videos.
The sex clips first emerged in May and PKR expelled Haziq then claimed he was one of two men in them and accused Azmin of being the other.
Azmin has consistently rejected the allegation while PKR sacked Haziq earlier this month.
