Kuala Lumpur, March 23 (IANS) A Malaysian woman has claimed to have 18 videos showing an opposition politician having sex with women prostitutes as well as with men, adding a new twist to the latest scandal that may affect the country's political scene.
Umi Hafilda Ali, a businesswoman, spoke to the media Tuesday, hours after former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim lodged a police complaint that he was not the man in a single 22-minute sex video shown to the media Monday by a person who called himself Datuk T.
Ali addressed the press after police cancelled a permission granted to her earlier to hold a social gathering.
'I knew about these videos 13 years ago. I know of an individual having all the videos and I hope that the person will expose them all to show the true colours of the politician,' she was quoted as saying by The Star newspaper.
'I knew who was in the 18 videos but maybe at that time it was not suitable to expose the videos, but now I think it is the right time,' she said.
Ali said she would make more exposures on the politician and was waiting for the right moment to do so.
'I have only exposed 40 percent of what I have. I have more horrific evidence that I will expose either in court or in public,' she claimed.
Anwar, who heads the opposition alliance Pakatan Rakyat, has alleged that the entire campaign against him was politically motivated and that it was timed along with a possible early election.
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and other ministers have denied the charges that the government and the special branch of police were behind the campaign.
Anwar's allies and constituents of his alliance, the Pan Islamic Malaysian Party (Pas) and the Democratic Action Party (DAP), Tuesday said they would stand by him.
Leaders from both parties said the airing of the sex video was politically motivated and condemned it as a 'dirty tactic'.
The identity of Datuk T. who first came out with the video remains unknown. The media said he was an 'insider' close to the politician he was accusing.
Datuk is a traditional Malaysian title similar to British knighthood.
A Malay man in his 50s, Datuk T. said in a statement that the politician asked him to search for a watch in the hotel room, when he stumbled upon some electrical wiring as well as a video recorder containing the footage of the politician having sex with a prostitute.
However, it was not clear what prompted Datuk T. to go public with the video. The popular theory was that he once belonged to the politician's inner circle, The Star said.
Anwar was appointed deputy prime minister in 1993, but was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison on corruption charges in 1999 and to nine more years on sodomy charges in 2000. He was released in 2004 after the charges were reviewed.
In the March 2008 elections, he forged an opposition alliance that won 88 seats in parliament and wrested control of four states, but was again charged with sodomy that year.
The former deputy prime minister, who is currently facing a second trial on charges of sodomy, earlier said: 'Every time we face elections - in 1999, 2008 and now - these allegations surface.'
The Star said in a commentary: 'The story goes that in 1998, the then prime minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad gave his deputy Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim a choice - quietly retire or face public exposure of his alleged sexual escapades. Anwar, just one step from becoming prime minister, chose to stay and fight.'