Chua Soi Lek - Hotel scene...

Batu Pahat hotel - centre of attraction after video sex scandal

THE hotel in Batu Pahat, Johor, where Malaysian Health Minister Chua Soi Lek and a woman friend were secretly filmed having sex has become the centre of attention.

According to Malaysian media reports, the plush hotel, which has not been named, is popular among VIPs who come to Batu Pahat.

It is believed to be the four-star, 15-storey Katerina Hotel, which has 188 rooms, including six premier suites for VIPs only.

A pack of reporters turned up at the hotel on Wednesday and found it empty and quiet.

Apart from three or four front-desk employees and several diners at the hotel's restaurant, the lobby with two-storey high, marble pillars and beautiful staircases, was empty, reported The Star newspaper on Thursday.

A Chinese daily reporter said he tried to book the room in which sex video was secretly filmed but was told a guest had taken the room for one week.

The hotel's sales and marketing assistant, when approached by reporters, said he did not want to deny or confirm anything about the video.

Minister chose same hotel, same room for trysts Dr Chua, 61, admitted at a press conference on Wednesday that his 'biggest mistake' was 'to go to the same hotel and the same room' for his trysts with the woman.

'If you go to a hotel, you might think that his is just any other hotel room,' he said. 'But my biggest mistake was to go to the same hotel and the same room, thinking that it would be more convenient.'

Advising others not to repeat his mistake, he said: 'I won't be the first and I won't be the last. It is up to the public to judge me.'

Still frames from the recording, shown on national television in Malaysia on Wednesday, showed a man and woman from a camera above a bed. Copies of the video, which was stored on two compact discs, were dropped off last week at shops and on some streets in Johor.

Prime Minister Abdullah today declined to say whether the recording was politically motivated, although he promised to pursue those who made the tape. 'It was an invasion of privacy,' he told reporters. 'The police will conduct an investigation.'

Dr Chua said on Wednesday he did not make the tape himself, and said the unidentified woman in the film was in her 30s and a personal friend.