Kuala Lumpur, March 19- PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim said today it is unfair to link the pilot of MH370 to a possible hijack just because he is a PKR supporter.
Anwar urged the government and pro-Umno bloggers not to cast aspersions unless there were facts to support the theory.
He said Zaharie was present at the Court of Appeal to express anger against the judgment in the sodomy trial on March 7. The appellate court had overturned Anwar’s acquittal and sentenced him to five years jail for sodomy.
“This does not mean he will bring his emotion to work,” he added.
“Most of the taxi drivers are our supporters, but they did not hijack their company’s vehicles to Kajang,” he said at a press conference in Parliament lobby today.
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said last Saturday that somebody on board on the Malaysia Airlines jetliner has deliberately switched off the main communication devices and turned back the plane after it reached Malaysia-Vietnam airspace border.
British tabloid Daily Mail reported that Zaharie was a fervent supporter of Anwar and was upset over the Court of Appeal’s conviction of Anwar on the sodomy charge.
The report said Zaharie went straight to the airport for the MH370 flight bound for Beijing after the court hearing.
Foreign media and pro-Umno bloggers had speculated that Zaharie had allegedly wanted to send a political message by taking over the Malaysia Airlines plane.
Related to Anwar
Meanwhile, Anwar admitted that Zaharie was related to his daughter-in-law and he could recall meeting Zaharie several times at party functions.
“He is a family man and has a strong passion for justice,” he said.
He urged the authorities to give space to Zaharie’s family and focus their investigation on locating the plane.
When the investigators turned their focus on the pilots of the missing jetliner, numerous PKR leaders had similarly warned against linking Zaharie to any misdeed that could have happened to the vanished plane.
Some PKR leaders even drew a distance between the party and Zaharie, with some rejecting reports that the pilot had been at the Court of Appeal on the day Anwar’s acquittal was reversed.
PKR vice president Tian Chua was reported in Astro Awani as saying that there was no evidence to suggest that Zahariae was there at the court, adding that it did not matter what his political leanings were.
Tian Chua was today questioned by the police under the Sedition Act for tweeting: “Najib sentenced Anwar to 5-year imprisonment – the people will bring down Najib in 5 months, that I promise you!!.”
Anwar disgusted
This morning, Anwar told AFP he was “disgusted” by what he saw as an attempt to smear Zaharie and somehow implicate the opposition leadership in the disappearance of Flight 370.
He condemned speculation that Zaharie – a member of Anwar’s party – may have been driven by political motives to sabotage the plane.
“Is it a crime for anyone to be a member of PKR? To me it is an attempt to deflect the government’s incompetence,” Anwar told AFP.
“I of course did not take the news reports seriously but I am speaking out because I sympathise with the pilot and his family,” he said.
“The mysterious disappearance of MH370 reflects not only an incompetent regime ruling the country but an irresponsible government,” he added.
The Malaysian authorities have had to defend themselves against repeated accusations that they withheld key information during the early stages of the search for the missing aircraft.
-FreeMalaysiaToday
