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Written by Staff Writer
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim says the captain of MH 370 is a card-carrying member of his party – and an extremely distant relative- but he dismissed suggestions the pilot may have diverted the plane as a political act in his support.
Hours before the Malaysia Airlines flight vanished en route to Beijing on March 8, Anwar, de facto leader of the People’s Justice Party, was sentenced to five years in jail after a court overturned his 2012 acquittal on a sodomy charge.
Some media outlets have reported that the plane’s pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, had attended the court hearing, and speculated that the flight’s disappearance may have been a political act in response to the verdict.
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim
As authorities increasingly focused their attentions on events in the cockpit, the homes of Zaharie and First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid were searched, and a homemade flight simulator found in Zaharie’s home, Malaysian officials revealed.
Anwar, who is free pending appeal, told CNN his party had been unable to establish whether Zaharie had been in attendance at court, although a number of his friends had reported he had been “upset and disgusted” by the outcome.
The opposition leader recognized photographs of Zaharie from political meetings, and subsequently established he was a member of his party — and a distant relative of his daughter-in-law.
However, he labeled the suggestion that Zaharie could have steered the airliner from its designated flight path as a political act as “grossly unfair” to the missing pilot.
CNN
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