Dr M says mastermind behind sex video should be brought to justice, denies defending Azmin

KUALA LUMPUR: The Prime Minister wants the mastermind behind the sex video that went viral to be brought to justice.

"Well, if (authorities) can find the identity of who actually produced this particular video and showed them on the Internet.. I think they should be punished," said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The Prime Minister also denied that he was defending Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali, who is allegedly implicated as one of the two men in the video. 

"I am not defending him. I am saying dirty politics like that will not trap me to be a part of it," he added.

"This is not the kind of politics we want," Dr Mahathir told reporters on the sideline after the National Strategy for Financial Literacy 2019-2023 on Tuesday (July 23).

Asked if he knew the identity of the mastermind who police say is a leader of a political party, Dr Mahathir replied: "I am not the investigator."

The premier also reiterated that the video was purposely created to achieve certain nasty objectives and to prevent "somebody" from making progress in politics.

"It's quite different from recording something that just happened.

"This was planned and I am not going to be an agent in making that plan a success," he added.

Meanwhile, Inspector-General of Police Datuk Abdul Hamid Bador said that investigations were ongoing and declined to elaborate.

"I've got many more important things to do. As I said about service delivery, I want to improve on that.

"Don't drag me and bog me down with all these unnecessary (issues).

"When I said investigations are ongoing, that is going on. It's not complete yet. Once it's been completed, I'll send it to the Attorney General," he told reporters.

Last week, Abdul Hamid said CyberSecurity Malaysia had determined that the video was likely authentic, but could not identify those in the sex video through facial recognition software.

He also said that investigations into the sex video scandal revealed that there was an evil conspiracy led by a political party leader to humiliate and damage the reputation of an individual.

The police chief also said the video, which was spread to cause unrest among the public, was produced by parties who paid hundreds of thousands of ringgit.

So far, 11 people have been detained over the case, with five subsequently released after their remand expired on Thursday (July 18).

Among those detained are former PKR Santubong Youth chief Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz and Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak, who is Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's political secretary and also Perak PKR chief.

Haziq has confessed publicly that he was one of the two men in the video and alleged that the other person was Azmin.