Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has admitted that one of the pilots on board the missing Flight MH370, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, is related to his son’s in-laws.
According to a report on The Star, Anwar told reporters at the Parliament lobby today (Mar 18), “I am not denying that he (Zaharie) is related to one of my in-laws and that I have met him on several occasions.
"In fact, he is a close friend of (PKR supreme council member and Subang MP) R. Sivarasa, as we said before."
“However, to politicise it is not right. We should respect the family’s rights and pray for them instead of prosecuting him before the investigation is completed.”
Anwar further admitted that Zaharie was a staunch opposition supporter and that he had met the pilot on a few occasions at party functions.
“I am not one to hide my associations with others. I have met him once or twice but I do not remember how many times,” he said.
Earlier, Anwar had been quoted by South China Morning Post as saying, “I don’t recollect the name (Zaharie), but when the photographs were shown, I remembered I had seen him at party meetings.”
He also said they had had no personal contact, but Zaharie was a follower of his Twitter account.
Anwar then hit out at pro-Umno bloggers for attempting to tarnish Zaharie’s reputation despite so many others painting him as a “professional, a decent family-oriented man and someone who believed in fighting for justice”.