Israel Matzav: What a surprise: Pilot of missing Malaysian plane known as a political fanatic

Sunday, March 16, 2014

What a surprise: Pilot of missing Malaysian plane known as a political fanatic

In an earlier post, I reported that the main suspects in the disappearance of a Malaysian commercial jet last Friday night are the pilot and the co-pilot. Now comes the unsurprising news that the pilot was known as a political fanatic.

The Mail on Sunday has learned that Zaharie was an ‘obsessive’ supporter of Malaysia’s opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

And hours before the doomed flight left Kuala Lumpur it is understood 53-year-old Zaharie attended a controversial trial in which Ibrahim was jailed for five years, it said.

Police sources confirmed to the daily that Zaharie was a vocal political activist and fear that the court decision left him profoundly upset.

It was against this background that, seven hours later, he took control of a Boeing 777-200 bound for Beijing and carrying 238 passengers and crew.

Police on Saturday searched Zaharie's house in the upmarket Kuala Lumpur suburb of Shah Alam, where he had installed a home-made flight simulator.

But this newspaper can reveal that investigators had already spent much of last week examining two laptops removed from Zaharie’s home. One is believed to contain data from the simulator.

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Military radar showed the jet climbed to 45,000ft – above its service limit – which could have been a deliberate attempt to knock out the passengers and crew.

The raids on Zaharie’s home appeared stage-managed as a display of intent after the Prime Minister said the focus of the investigation was now on ‘crew and passengers’ as a result of the latest leads.

But investigators have told the Daily Mail on Sunday inquiries into the background of the pilot actually began days earlier.

Malaysian police, helped by FBI agents from the US, are looking into the political and religious backgrounds of both Zaharie and his co-pilot. Zaharie’s home was sealed off as police spent an hour inside.

However, a senior investigation source said two laptops were taken from the property in low-key visits by police early last week despite a series of denials by officials that his home had been searched or raided.

One laptop taken away is thought to contain data from the flight simulator while a second contained little information.

Zaharie’s personal laptop was not found, and is thought to have been with him in the cockpit of the plane, the source said.

Zaharie’s co-workers have told investigators the veteran pilot was a social activist who was vocal and fervent in his support of Anwar.

"Colleagues made it clear to us that he was someone who held strong political beliefs and was strident in his support for Anwar Ibrahim,’ another investigation source said.

"We were told by one colleague he was obsessed with politics."

In their interviews, colleagues said Zaharie told them he planned to attend the court case involving Anwar on March 7, just hours before the Beijing flight, but investigators had not yet been able to confirm if he was among the crowd of Anwar supporters at court.

Zaharie is believed to be separated or divorced from his wife although they share the same house, close to Kuala Lumpur’s international airport.

They have three children, but no family members were at home: only the maid has remained there.