FARHASH Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak, political secretary to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, has been released from remand over a viral sex video that has roiled the party.

Former Santubong PKR Youth chief Haziq Abdullah Abdul Haziz, who admitted to being the man in the sex clip implicating Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali, was also released from remand today.

Upon his release at the Dang Wangi district police station, Farhash told reporters that police had “taken away his liberty’ as they had arrested him without any justification.

“I don’t look like Azmin Ali. Why can’t they just call me and have my statement recorded? They chose to detain me like some murderer,” he said.

Farhash and Haziq were arrested six days ago, with their remand orders extended after the third day untill today.

Farhash, who is Perak PKR chief, today said the police had initially tried to detain him for a maximum of two weeks.

“They wanted to arrest me for seven days and then they want to add another seven days. Luckily, we have good lawyers, and they argued against the necessity (to detain me).

“For eight days, even the police officers investigating this case are also puzzled. Why detain me, and not Azmin Ali?”

He also called his arrest a “political conspiracy” against his boss, Anwar.

“I think there is a political conspiracy. It is a conspiracy against Anwar Ibrahim. If the inspector-general of police has credibility, bring Azmin Ali in,” he said before leaving the police station with a group of supporters.

He and Haziq left the police station at about 4pm and were welcomed by PKR supporters who had been waiting since 1pm.

Haziq did not speak to the press. His lawyer Ramesh Sivakumar said he has yet to be informed if any charges would be filed over the sex video.

“I am not sure if the police are going to charge them or not. The deputy public prosecutor will decide on that,” he said.

Another person released today was a man who had been picked up by the police in relation to the sex video investigation but his identity is not known.

Another PKR politician questioned over the sex video is Kota Anggerik assemblyman Najwan Halimi, who was yesterday grilled by police for nearly two hours before being allowed to leave.

PKR is in the spotlight as police have said the video’s mastermind could be “a leader of a political party”.

Police said the video’s authenticity is “highly probable” although they could not ascertain the identity of the two men in it. – July 23, 2019.