PETALING JAYA: There will be no prosecution against any individual in connection with the gay sex videos which allegedly implicated Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, according to Attorney-General Tan Sri Tommy Thomas (pix).
Thomas said this was because forensic experts were unable to conclusively identify the persons in the video based on facial recognition analysis, due to the poor quality of the clips.
“In these circumstances and upon reviewing evidence as presently gathered and submitted by PDRM to this chambers, my deputy public prosecutors unanimously recommended to me that no charges be proffered in connection with the videos.
“I have accepted their recommendation and have decided not to prosecute any person,” he said in a statement today.
The announcement by Thomas comes after months of investigations by the authorities into allegations that Azmin was involved in unnatural sex with his then political aide, former Santubong PKR Youth chief Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz.
This was following the dissemination of a series of video clips in June last year, allegedly of the pair, with Haziq later admitting to be the other individual in the clips.
Azmin has vehemently denied any involvement, despite Haziq’s admission that it was indeed the former who was the other person caught in the sexual act with him.
During the course of the investigation, several individuals were also arrested and questioned, including Haziq himself, and PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s political secretary Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizla Mubarak.
Thomas’ statement today comes on the back of public pressure for the authorities to come up with an update and conclusion to the case, after about half a year of investigations.
The AG explained that the delay was primarily due to the amount of time required for the forensic reports to be finalised.
He added that numerous discussions were also held to review the evidence gathered by the police, apart from several instructions for further investigations to ensure sufficiency of evidence, before any prosecutorial decision could be made.
“Due process of the law must be observed, procedures and technical requirement for proper forensic analysis must be complied with,” he said.
Thomas noted that during the initial parts of investigations, Cyber Security Malaysia (CSM) had concluded that while the videos were authentic, facial recognition could not be achieved due to poor video resolution. Due to this, the police had then submitted the videos to be independently analysed by forensic experts in the United States, of which the result was obtained last month.
“This independent report confirmed CSM’s findings, among others, that the inability to identify individuals in the videos is primarily due to low resolution and quality, and the relatively few number of video frames in which the suspect is clearly visible.
“Separately, the police also received unsolicited analysis report on the videos from a private individual, also confirming that identification could not be conclusively made based on facial recognition analysis,” he said.
Thomas added that consistent with the AG’s Chambers practice, investigations may be reopened if and when new evidence becomes available.
