Anwar: PKR won’t make any decisions on Azmin pending ongoing investigations

Yiswaree Palansamy

20 July 2019 at 5:21 am

PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim speaks to the media during PKR’s retreat at the Lexis Hibiscus resort in Port Dickson July 20, 2019. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon

PORT DICKSON July 20 — PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today said that his party would not make any decisions against deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali pending ongoing investigations into a series of sex videos implicating him.

“I think the statement by Shamsul was prior to the police statement, and I have clarified that we as a party, will not make any decisions until the report is conclusive,” the Port Dickson MP said this evening in a press conference at PKR’s retreat at the Lexis Hibiscus resort in Port Dickson.

Anwar was referring to a statement by PKR’s information chief Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin who initially said that political leaders who were implicated in wrongdoings should be placed on leave.

Without naming anyone in particular, Shamsul had said that the action is crucial as it would help enforcement agencies to carry out their investigations.

“I said it’s up to the police to continue with their investigations, but at least as a party, me personally, and as a party, we are glad that at least it’s been negative. So we are not pre-empting anyting else, but we are saying, that we view this positively.

“To be specific, I’m making reference to the Inspector-General of Police’s (IGP) statement, that the facial recognition process is negative, and the person in the video cannot be linked to the individual meant,” he added.

Police investigations are ongoing over the sex video scandal, but the IGP on Thursday clarified that Cybersecurity Malaysia’s analysis on the video found that there is a high likelihood of the video being authentic but that the facial recognition process returned negative results on those seen in the video.

The IGP had also said the police’s investigation has shown that a leader of a political party had led a notorious pact to embarrass and tarnish an individual’s reputation via a video created by quarters that were hired with hundreds of thousands of ringgit.

After the IGP’s statement, Azmin’s supporters are expected to hold a ceremony this Sunday for thanksgiving prayers over his alleged victory in rejecting politics using slander in the sex video scandal, PKR Wanita chief has confirmed.

According to local daily Sinar Harian, Haniza Talha explained that the event was being organised after the situation had seemingly cooled down in the wake of the sex video scandal that was alleged to have implicated Azmin.

She reportedly said the event was also aimed at showing that the method of using sex videos to bring down an individual is an outdated approach, besides noting that the sex video scandal was taking up police resources.