Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim denied today he was the man snapped on camera being intimate with another man in the latest round of sex allegations to surround the opposition leader weeks before national elections are called.
A series of 13 blurred photographs showing a man, who bore a passing resemblance to the PKR adviser, hugging and kissing another man in a bedroom, surfaced last Thursday on the Internet and has been picked up by several websites, including those belonging to known pro-Umno blogers.
“I categorically deny it,” Anwar said, when asked to comment on the black-and-white still photographs titled “Aksi Raja Goyang [The Rocking King’s Actions]” after a open dialogue session with youths at the One World Hotel here.
“It is a disgusting political gimmick by Umno,” he said.
He accused his political foes in the ruling Barisan Nasional mainstay of resorting to the media to spread slander, in an oblique reference to a scandalous video of yet another man purported to be Anwar having sex with an unknown woman with East Asian features.
“After this, confirm the videos will come out,” he said.
The 65-year-old said he was not certain yet if he would take legal action to stop the spread of the pictures.
“I will tell my lawyer and then decide,” he said.
The still photographs that appeared on the website: www.rajagoyang360.blogspot.com; was still accessible at the time of publication. The pictures were taken from two different camera angles and show the two men locked in intimate embraces and also include a full nudity shot, of a man’s back.
Anwar’s sexuality has repeatedly come under the spotlight over the years since his sacking from government in 1998, following allegations he had had sex with several men and women.
The former deputy prime minister has twice stood trial for sodomy, and been acquitted both times, the most recent being last year after a former male aide, Saiful Bukhari Azlan, complained of being sodomised by Anwar at a posh condominium in the upscale Damansara Heights neighbourhood.
Anwar was acquitted of the Sodomy II charge in January 2012 but public prosecutors have filed an appeal. The appeal hearing has been set for July 22.
Saiful’s father, Azlan Lazim, has cast doubts on the prosecution’s case with his public allegation on March 8.
In a heavily-guarded press conference, Azlan came out to say that Sodomy II was merely a political conspiracy involving his son.
Azlan alleged that the plot was planned by a special officer in the Prime Minister’s Department and was engineered to tarnish Anwar’s image with another sodomy charge, the opposition leader’s second since he lost his post in government in 1998.
The 60-year-old, however, was without his son at the press conference called by PKR’s Sungai Petani MP Datuk Johari Abdul. Later that evening, Saiful repudiated his father’s revelation.
Critics immediately claimed the timing of Azlan’s revelation was aimed at boosting Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) electoral support although analysts polled by The Malaysian Insider said they believed it would not impact Election 2013 much.
Despite this, just three days later, Azlan announced that he would be joining Anwar’s PKR.
He claimed, however, that the decision had nothing to do with his accusation, saying he had been a PKR backer “as a grassroots supporter” since its formation in 1998.
He dismissed allegations that he was paid to make such claims and insisted that the revelation, made amid anticipation that national polls will be held within weeks, was the truth.
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