PETALING JAYA: Close friends of Muhammad Haziq Abdul Aziz, who was a law graduate at Universiti Malaya (UM), say they never knew he was gay.

Two close friends, who are also family friends of Muhammad Haziq, 27, said they had known him for more than a decade and as long as they had known him, he was never gay and was in a steady relationship with a woman for years.

“He had a girlfriend last time. They were together for quite a while but I heard they had recently broken up,” said one.

A schoolmate who studied with Muhammad Haziq at Sekolah Sains Alam Shah in Cheras said he was religious and active in the school's Islamic student body during their time there.

“He was religious during our schooldays and he once ‘outed’ another boy who ‘touched’ the juniors when they were sleeping. He was strict in that.

“I also know he had a long-time girlfriend. He comes from a very kind and respectable family in Kuching. He is very close to his family.

“I convinced his mother to let him take up law after SPM. In 2013, we went to Toulon, France together for a leadership course.

“We co-founded Mahasiswa Keadilan Malaysia and ran it for some. Then we went separate ways because I was starting to do more NGO work while he was more inclined to partisan politics,” said one friend.

He was also once very much a supporter of Barisan Nasional before supporting Pakatan Rakyat, then switching to the former again.

Friends said that they were mostly surprised when he was appointed the senior private secretary to Deputy Primary Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, as they did not know that he was supporting Pakatan.

“Throughout many years knowing Haziq, he's very easily influenced. He does have ambition, and would do anything to achieve it.

“When I first met him, he was a strong supporter of Umno and all we did was talk politics. Then, he became a Pakatan Rakyat supporter. A few years later, he was following a Sarawak Barisan minister here and there, and I assumed he was for Barisan again.

“Then, suddenly I was shocked when he was appointed the private secretary to Shamsul,” said one friend who asked to remain anonymous.

Another friend, who knew him well during his UM days and was in the same batch, said that Muhammad Haziq was very much into activism on campus.

“He was once suspended in 2012 for having taken part in the anti-PTPTN demonstration in Dataran Merdeka and vandalising photographs of national leaders.

“He graduated and practised law for a short while in Sarawak. In fact, he was practising two months before he joined the minister's team as an aide,” said the college mate.

The Star had reported then that Muhammad Haziq and two other students were fined and suspended after they were found guilty of having hung funeral garlands on national leaders' photographs.

Another close friend who always followed Muhammad Haziq said that he was surprised to see the photograph of him with PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in a movie outing recently.

“I did not know he had such high connections, what more going to the cinema with a high ranking politician,” said the friend.

On May 4, Muhammad Haziq had posted a photograph of himself with Anwar and his family after watching the movie Avengers: End Game.

“Second time watching the movie. This time with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Avengers, assemble!” Haziq posted.

For the past two days, a video of two men engaging in sexual acts, with one resembling a minister, has been making its rounds on social media and via WhatsApp.

Earlier Wednesday (June 12), Mohammad Haziq confessed on Facebook that he was the man in the sex video. He named the minister allegedly in the video and said the latter was not fit to be a leader.

Muhammad Haziq also called on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate the minister for corruption.