Thaindian News

Kuala Lumpur, March 24 (IANS) Two politicians and a businessman have said they are the mysterious “Datuk T” or “Datuk Trio” behind a sex video which, according to them, features former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Former Malacca state chief minister Rahim Tamby Chik, another politician Shuib Lazim and businessman Shazryl Eskay Abdullah, all having the traditional Malaysian title, have come forward to say they are the “Datuk T” and are demanding Ibrahim’s trial.

Ibrahim has denied he is the man in the video, purportedly showing a man having sex with a foreign prostitute in a hotel room. He has termed it a ‘conspiracy’ to malign him and the opposition alliance Pakatan Rakyat that he heads, in time for possible early election.

He has claimed that he was at home with his family and staff when the alleged incident took place.

The three revealed themselves after an alleged attempt to win over five of Ibrahim’s MPs by showing them the video failed, The Star newspaper said Thursday.

The trio demanded the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) that can only be ordered by the royal constitutional head to investigate the sex video implicating Ibrahim.

Tamby Chik told the media that this was necessary because the scandal involved “a top leader who is ambitious to be a national leader and the Malaysian prime minister”.

“This is the person who will determine the future of the country, the future of Malaysians and the status of Islam in the country,” he told a press conference at a hotel here.

Police are not buying the trio’s claim that they are the “Datuk T” and will investigate.

“We can’t just take their word for it,” Ghazali Mohammed Amin, a police official, said.

The hotel where the video was supposedly shot has denied the claim of “Datuk T”.

Sex scandals have rocked Malaysia’s political scene many times before.

Ibrahim is currently under trial on charge of sodomising an aide. Earlier in 1998, he was slapped with a similar charge and was sacked as deputy prime minister.