COMMUNICATIONS and digital minister Fahmi Fadzil has lambasted opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin for citing an unverified Italian news report in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

This was after Hamzah quoted a little-known Italian website called Agenzia Nova which referred to Anwar Ibrahim as Malaysia’s “first full-blown homosexual elected prime minister in an Islamic country”.

The  Lembah Pantai MP questioned the credibility of the news portal which is not even on a Reuters list of news outlets in Italy.

“Guess what? Agenzia Nova isn’t even on the list!”

“What is this (Italian) Agenzia Nova website that he was citing? Does it have any credibility?” he said in a Facebook post today.

Fahmi said Hamzah should have used a more credible news outlet of the same “level” as Bernama, the BBC or the New York Times.

“Turns out to be some obscure website. They don’t even state the name of the reporters who write their articles,” he said, adding that Hamzah should not try to “scam” the people.

Yesterday, Hamzah told the prime minister to take legal action against a foreign news agency for publishing a news report accusing him of being the first full-blown homosexual prime minister in an Islamic nation. 

The Larut MP, referring to the news report titled “Malaysia’s first full-blown homosexual prime minister” from a relatively unknown Italian news website, Agenzia Nova, said the report insults the prime minister and urged action to be taken to prove the accusation wrong. 

However, even before Hamzah completed his sentence, a shouting match ensued, with backbenchers trying to interrupt him while he was reading out his statement.  

Hamzah told backbenchers to allow him to finish his speech. 

The Larut MP then said the prime minister should take action against those who defame him. 

Anwar had faced prison time for his sodomy case in the past. 

In 2015, Anwar was jailed for five years after being accused of sodomy, a charge he described as a politically motivated attempt by then prime minister Najib Razak to end his career. 

In 2018, Anwar received a full pardon from the king and was released from prison. 

Sodomy is illegal in Muslim-majority Malaysia, where the offence carries a jail term of up to 20 years. – December 20, 2022.