In the latest twist to the sex scandal that rocked Malaysian politics, police have detained the former ruling coalition aide, Haziq Abdul Aziz, who claimed he had a same-sex affair with Azmin Ali, the influential economic affairs minister.
The Malaysiakini news portal on Monday reported Haziq and five others had been remanded for six days as part of the police investigations into a sex video the 27-year-old former aide claimed showed him and Azmin in a hotel room in the state of Sabah.
The news portal quoted Huzir Mohamed, the federal criminal and investigations department director, as saying the probe was linked to a section in the penal code regarding the distribution of obscene material. He said the remand order was obtained earlier on Monday.
Azmin, viewed by some as Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s preferred successor, reacted with fury when Haziq first made the allegations in early June.
The minister denied involvement and dismissed the saga as a “nefarious plot” to jeopardise his political career. He later said he would comply fully with police investigations.
On Saturday police chief Abdul Hamid Bador said investigators had found “evidence of a conspiracy and a plot” implicating a minister that was aimed “to topple someone”. He said police had not ruled out the involvement of politicians and “non-governmental organisations”.
Azmin is the deputy president of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR, or National Justice Party), which is led by Anwar Ibrahim, 71, who is poised to succeed Mahathir, 94, as prime minister at some point during the current electoral term.
However, Mahathir last year handed Azmin, 54, control of a powerful new ministry overseeing major state-owned companies, fuelling reports of a rivalry between Anwar and Azmin.
They have sparred publicly over a range of issues since last year’s watershed election, in which the Pakatan Harapan coalition ended the Barisan Nasional bloc’s six-decade rule.
Observers have speculated privately that Anwar’s political allies orchestrated the sex video scandal to forestall any plan for Mahathir to install Azmin instead of Anwar as the country’s next leader.
Anwar has dismissed suggestions he had anything to do with the video, and Mahathir has said he is committed to handing over power to Anwar.
After Haziq made his allegation public via Facebook, he was sacked from his job as an aide to deputy primary industries minister Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, who is also from PKR. The party, the largest component of the ruling coalition, also sacked him as a party member.
