PETALING JAYA,Dec 1: Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob has denied claims that he breached Covid-19 SOPs, after pictures of him at a restaurant in Melaka allegedly failing to practice physical distancing went viral.
The pictures, which circulated on social media yesterday, showed Ismail with Chief Minister Sulaiman Md Ali and state assembly speaker Ab Rauf Yusoh without masks and sitting less than a metre apart around a dining table.
Clarifying the matter in an Instagram post, Ismail said the pictures were taken at an angle to intentionally show everyone sitting close to each other.
“What’s evil is that these people showed the picture from the side, to make it seem like we were not distancing.
“But this is the real picture,” he said, of the photograph he uploaded. “May Allah open their hearts so they will no longer accuse anyone else after this.”
Responding to comments that even the picture he uploaded showed him seated less than a metre from the rest, Ismail said having a chair between diners was enough distancing.
“In a restaurant, as long as there is a chair in between (diners), that is already enough,” he said.
