While Datuk T - the trio responsible for releasing a sex video purportedly depicting a prominent opposition leader - have revealed themselves, a PKR MP has moved to defend one of them.

Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul, one of those who recently saw the video, said one of the three - Perkasa treasurer-general and former senator Shuib Lazim - is likely to just be an 'innocent bystander'.

In fact, Johari said, Shuib, who is his uncle, had himself had told him that he (Shuib) too did not believe the person in the video was PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, as claimed.

NONE "(After I watched the video), he told me privately, 'I also don't believe that it's Anwar'," Johari ( left ) told at a press conference at the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya this evening.

Fending off the attacks against Shuib, Johari said he does not think that his uncle was 'involved'.

"I know my uncle and I don't think he'll go that far. I think he's just an innocent bystander... I think he is just a 'matcher' because I am his nephew.

"Shuib also told me that he does not believe that it was (Anwar) in the video and I think he called me to watch it because he genuinely wanted me to see it and verify this," Johari added.

At a press conference yesterday, former Malacca chief minister Rahim Thamby Chik and businessman Shazryl Eskay Abdullah unmasked themselves as 'Datuk T', explaining that ‘T' stood for 'trio' and that Shuib was the third person.

'Rahim said Najib would take care of me'

Johari had said yesterday that he was asked by the trio to watch the video on Monday in a Kuala Lumpur hotel room, and that he was also offered money to leave PKR.

He also denied Rahim's claims that he had demanded for RM100,000 as 'duit pelincir' ('grease money') as well as RM1 million for each PKR MP he would bring to watch the video.

rahim thamby chik interview 290108 squander "Rahim told me, 'why don't we settle this once and for all?' He also offered to take me to meet (Prime Minister) Najib (Abdul Razak). Rahim ( right ) said that Najib would take care of my finances and security.

"I just smiled. I didn't say anything. I'm not stupid. I know that my conversations would be recorded and that my movements would be monitored the moment I stepped into the hotel room.

"RM100,000 is no big deal. We MPs are not that cheap. I might as well ask for RM3 or 4 million," said Johari.

He said he was '100 percent sure' that the sex video was a political conspiracy, especially with the Sarawak election around the corner, and reiterated that the man in the video was not Anwar.

"You cannot see the face of the man in the video. In fact, with the video in black and white, the man could even look like Shazryl Eskay," Johari added.

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