Dr M wants 'mastermind' punished, denies defending Azmin
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad wants the mastermind behind the sex video implicating Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali to be punished.
"If we can find them and identify those who actually produced this particular video and show it on the net, I think they should be punished...
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad wants the mastermind behind the sex videos implicating Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali to be punished.
"If we can find them and identify those who actually produced this particular video and show it on the net, I think they should be punished.
"This is not the kind of politics that we want," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.
Asked if he knew the identity of the mastermind, whom the police described as the leader of a political party, Mahathir replied: "I am not the investigator."
He also denied that he was defending Azmin when dismissing the sex videos as fake even before the authorities completed their investigations.
"I am not defending him (Azmin)," he said, adding that his previous remarks were aimed at rejecting gutter politics.
Mahathir explained that his statements were to emphasise that he would not be trapped into being part of such political tactics.
Elaborating further, he said the sex video clips weren't the usual videos as they were created to prevent someone from making progress in politics.
Ironically, PKR president Anwar Ibrahim (above) had accused Mahathir, during his first tenure as prime minister, of fabricating a sodomy charge to remove him as deputy prime minister in 1998.
Earlier today, the 94-year-old prime minister said he did not want to be used to hamper a certain person's political advancement.
First released in June, the videos depicted two men engaged in sexual acts.
Soon after, then-Santubong PKR Youth chief Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz confessed to being one of the men in the videos and named Azmin as the other. Haziq has since been sacked from the party.
Azmin denied the allegation and characterised the videos as a nefarious plot to destroy his political career. PKR president Anwar Ibrahim also denied involvement in the incident.
The police are investigating the case, and have since arrested several people – including Haziq, an unnamed PKR assemblyperson and Perak PKR chief Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak – to assist in their probe.
Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador said last week that the videos are believed to be authentic, but that the facial recognition software used failed to ascertain the identities of those involved.
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