KUALA LUMPUR: A former deputy minister accused of links to a human trafficking syndicate in Myanmar said she was only in the country to attend an event as a guest.
Datuk Dr Mashitah Ibrahim said she and her husband were invited to attend a groundbreaking ceremony in Myanmar by their friend, Datuk Seri Leong Kee Huat.
She said it was an international event and that Leong had asked her husband to read an English speech text at the event.
"The photos said to be of me with gangsters are actually of me with security personnel at the project site," she said, according to Kosmo!.
Mashitah said it was common to see armed security personnel in Myanmar as the country was ruled by a military junta.
She said she and her husband only knew Leong and had no business with anyone else at the event.
Mashitah, a former deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department previously denied accusations of links to a human trafficking syndicate in Myanmar.
She has lodged a police report and given her statement to the police.