SHAH ALAM, 20 Mar: Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim dismissed claims by some media that the MAS pilot that was operating MH370, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, is a terrorist.
Speaking to a CNN correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, in an interview yesterday, Anwar said that Zaharie supports democratic reforms and is against any form of extremism.
Anwar, who is also the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) de facto leader, also dismissed claims that Zaharie reacted to Anwar’s five-year prison sentence meted out to him on 7 March.
“I gathered later from many of his colleagues and from what is written about him that he was disturbed. Many others were disturbed. I mean, we were shocked and appalled by the speed of the process of the court of appeal.
“But I think that’s quite normal. I don’t think it’s something that would trigger a person of his expertise, calibre, to do any unwanted activity. I am absolutely certain of that,” he said.
Prior to this, foreign media reports said that Zaharie attended Anwar’s trial in Putrajaya a few house before the flight’s departure on 8 March.
“”He was not in the court. He may have been outside in the premises of the court.
“But from what I gather, from many of our colleagues, nobody actually saw him in the premises of the court,” he said.
Anwar, however, admitted that he knows Zaharie as a PKR activist and has met the MAS Captain several times before.