PETALING JAYA: A lawyer says Dr Mahathir Mohamad did the right thing in dismissing at the outset the authenticity of the viral gay sex clips implicating one of his Cabinet members, adding this will not affect the ongoing police probe.
“In this new Malaysia, the prime minister and nobody else interferes with the police in conducting an independent investigation,” criminal lawyer SN Nair told FMT today.
“Tun’s statement will have absolutely no impact on the ongoing police investigations.”
MIC central committee member RT Rajasekaran, who is also a lawyer, criticised Mahathir for questioning the authenticity of the videos, saying he risked jeopardising police investigations into the case.
Mahathir told reporters he believed the video clips were fake and that Haziq Aziz, the PKR youth leader who claimed he was one of the two men in the videos, had a political agenda.
Haziq alleged that the other person was party deputy president and Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali, a claim that Azmin strongly denied.
“I don’t think this is true. You can produce these types of pictures if you are clever enough,” Mahathir said last week when asked to comment on the videos, adding that Azmin would not be “so stupid” to do this.
Nair said Mahathir had a duty to the people as leader of Pakatan Harapan to express his immediate views on the matter.
“Otherwise, it would have wreaked further havoc to the already volatile situation, which would have adversely affected his Cabinet.
“It (his remarks) helped quell, to a large extent, unbridled speculation.
“As head of government, it also made good sense of him at the outset to recognise that the story was unverified and hearsay.”
Nair, a former police officer, said Mahathir’s statement did more good than bad, as some are claiming.
Meanwhile, lawyer Nizam Bashir noted that Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador had said an investigation paper had been opened.
Hamid had yesterday said police would summon all parties, including the person who made the accusation and the individual being accused, adding that investigations will also look into the authenticity of the videos and pictures that had been leaked.
So Nizam asked how Rajasekaran could say the police probe would not be fair simply because of Mahathir’s comments.
professionalism in their investigations.
Police released Haziq yesterday after he was detained overnight.
They are investigating the 27-year-old Santubong PKR Youth chief for various offences, including carnal intercourse against the order of nature and distribution of obscene material. - FMT
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