Character assassination? Man boozing and partying in viral message not Art Harun

PETALING JAYA: The man in a viral message shown to be drinking alcohol and partying with women is not the newly appointed Election Commission chairman.

Lawyer Azhar Harun, or better known as Art Harun, has denied that the man in the viral pictures is him.

"It's not me. Obviously," he told The Star on Wednesday (Sept 26).

The pictures, which were accompanied by text alleging that it was Azhar, went viral on messaging app WhatsApp.

Among other things, it showed a man drinking alcohol, the same man kissing a girl, and another photo of the man resting his head on the shoulder of another woman while drinking.

The text said sarcastically that hopefully the new EC chairman would not be drinking before announcing the candidates and the results for the Port Dickson by-election.

However, the man in the pictures only bears a superficial resemblance to Azhar. A Google reverse search image of the pictures led to numerous sites in Indonesia.

According to Indonesian Facebook page RPS 2019, the man is Ustaz Abu Janda al-Boliwudi and is an Indonesian.

It said Abu Janda's personal Facebook account had been hacked and that his personal photo album, which was set to private, became publicly accessible.

In it, there were pictures of Abu Janda drinking alcohol and hanging out with numerous women.

These were the same pictures used to cast Azhar in a bad light.