KUALA LUMPUR, March 21- Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who is on currently trial for sodomy, on Monday denied allegations he was the man in a sex tape shown to the media.
Anwar, a former deputy premier who was sacked and jailed in 1998 on separate sodomy and corruption charges widely seen as politically motivated, said the tape was another "dirty and obscene" attempt to end this career.
"I condemn this latest conspiracy to slander and embarrass my family and I," he said after an unidentified group showed the tape to journalists including the editors of several Malaysian newspapers.
"The visual that was shown... this afternoon is a planned evil attack by my political enemies in their effort to slow down Pakatan Rakyat," he said, referring to his three-member opposition alliance.
Anwar said he was at home meeting with political staffers when the incident -- purportedly an assignation with a female prostitute in a hotel room -- supposedly took place in February.
"I even have proof that I was sending tweets at the time the alleged incident was said to have occurred," he said. "They have tried for 13 years to destroy me. Our members and the Malaysian public will not be duped to believe such scurrilous attacks."
According to online news portal journalist Sam Tan, who was allowed to view the 17-minute tape, it showed someone looking like the former deputy premier engaging in sex with a woman in what appeared to be a hotel room.
"The people involved showed us the video on a laptop and it appeared to be from a CCTV that showed someone who looks like Anwar having sex with a woman," he said.
"The reporters were made to leave their cameras and all recording devices outside the room before we were made to dress in robes and led to the computer where the video was played for us," he added.
Anwar said he was unable to take legal action against those releasing the tape as he had yet to see a copy, and it was not yet clear whether it would be widely distributed.
The unidentified group said in a statement that the incident took place at a hotel "that offered sex services and spa facilities" in the Malaysian capital on February 21 this year.
They said the video and hidden recording equipment were found in the hotel room after Anwar asked for it to be searched to find a watch left behind there.
"Anwar is not a pious person with high moral value and integrity as portrayed, and therefore he is not fit to be a leader," they said in the statement signed only "The Insider".
The group said it would send a copy of the video to Anwar and his wife next week and that if he did not resign, they would ask civil society groups to establish a panel to investigate their claims.
The allegations emerged as Malaysian prosecutors attempt to force Anwar to provide a DNA sample in his sodomy trial, as they try to prove he had sexual contact with his accuser, a 25-year-old male former aide.
He has refused to give a sample and won a key victory earlier this month when DNA evidence obtained from his detention cell without his consent was ruled inadmissible.
Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan has accused Anwar -- a 63-year-old father of six -- of sodomising him at an upmarket Kuala Lumpur condominium in 2008. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Anwar has said he is the victim of a plot to prevent him from taking power after the opposition made huge strides in 2008 elections, stunning the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition which has been in power for half a century.
He was sacked as deputy premier by then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1998 and found guilty of corruption and sodomy, but was released from jail in 2004 after the sodomy conviction was overturned.
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