Fridae

A Malaysian cabinet minister is in political turmoil after videos and images purporting to show him having sex with another man were shared online. Gay sex is illegal under colonial-era laws in Malaysia and those found guilty face up to 20 years in prison. The country’s religious and political leaders have increasingly been whipping up hatred against the LGBT population. In the early hours of Wednesday (12 June), a ministerial aide confessed to appearing in the viral video. Senior private secretary to the deputy minister of primary industries and commodities, Muhammad Haziq Abdul Aziz, said on Facebook he was ‘making a sworn confession that I am the individual in the video’. ‘The video was taken without my permission on May 11 during the Sandakan by-election in [the minister’s] room at Hotel Four Points’ he said. Then, Haziq Aziz urged Malaysia’s anti-corruption commission to investigate the cabinet minister widely suspected to be in the video. ‘He is not an individual who is qualified to be a leader’ the aide said. He did not, however, explicitly confirm that the cabinet minister appeared in the video.

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