Sex video: Judge reduces remand orders for all except Haziq

The Kuala Lumpur High Court has reduced the initial six-day remand order to four days for a group arrested on Monday in relation to sex videos implicating Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali.

However, Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah upheld the six-day remand order for former PKR Santubong Youth chief Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz, one of the six arrested. 

In his decision, Sequerah highlighted the “impossibility” of implicating more than two people under Section 377B of the Penal Code on carnal intercourse against the order of nature.

“Considering the impossibility of charging all detainees with the exception of Haziq under Section 377B, I will vary the remand order for all detainees except Haziq and reduce it from six days to four days,” the judge said after hearing an application to challenge the remand.

Section 377B is punishable by up to 20 years and whipping upon conviction.

On Monday, police had applied for the remand order for all six under three laws – Sections 377B and 292(A) of the Penal Code, and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

Section 292(A) concerns the offence of distributing obscene material, which is punishable with a maximum of three years' jail, fine, or both upon conviction.

Section 233 of the CMA concerns producing content which is indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass, and carries a maximum one-year sentence or an RM50,000 fine, or both.

According to Section 177(2)(A) of the Criminal Procedure Code, a remand order can be issued for a maximum of four days for those being probed for offences punishable by a sentence less than 14 years.

A four-day remand for the five would expire tomorrow, while Haziq’s remand is set to expire this Saturday.

Police made ‘general application’

Representing Haziq and four of the five detainees today were lawyers S Ramesh, R Sivahnanthan and Vince Tan. The final detainee was represented by A Ashok.

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Ramesh argued that police had not considered all six detainees individually when applying for the remand order, and had instead made a “general application” under the three laws mentioned above.

He also questioned if Magistrate Namirah Hanum Mohamed Albakri had based her decision to allow the remand after considering the investigation diaries of the investigating officer, as required by law.

“No such document was tendered over the course of the (remand) proceedings or at least within our sight,” the lawyer told the court.

Sequerah then ordered for a brief stand down to allow deputy public prosecutor Mohd Radzi Abdul Razak to perform the necessary checks.

The judge later ruled that it was reasonable to conclude that the magistrate had based her judgement on the investigation diaries, as it had been submitted online as part of the police’s remand application.

Met after the decision, Ramesh said his team is mulling their next move.

“We will have to consider our options, see whether we can take it up any further than this. We will look into that,” he told the media.

In June, Haziq confessed to being one of the two men depicted in a series of sex videos which were circulated online. He claimed that his partner had been Azmin. 

Azmin strongly denied the allegation and described the saga as an attempt to destroy his political career.

Yesterday, three more arrests were made in connection with the case, with one of them allegedly a high-ranking PKR leader.

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