Malaysia: Stolen passport user was asylum seeker

By: 11 years ago

A Thai policeman shows a copy of Italian Luigi Maraldi’s stolen passport as he visits the Six Stars Travel for questioning in Pattaya, Chonburi province, Thailand, Monday, March 10, 2014. The agency told police that it had issued the tickets used by the holders of two stolen passports on Flight MH370 last Thursday. The owner said the reservations were placed by another travel agency, Grand Horizon Travel, which in turn told police that it had received the order from the China Southern Airlines office in Bangkok. AP

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian police say one of the passengers using a stolen passport on a missing jetliner was an Iranian asylum seeker.

Police chief Tan Sri Khalid Tan Sri said Tuesday that the man was not believed to be a member of a terrorist group.

He says the man was a 19-year-old who was believed to be planning to reach Germany. He said the second passenger using a stolen passport has not been identified.

The police chief also said that they were looking at hijacking, sabotage, psychological and personal problems of passengers and crew as among the possible reasons that could have caused the disappearance of Flight MH 370 over Vietnam.

Authorities have not found the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner three days after it disappeared from radar screens, and the discovery that two passengers used stolen passports to buy tickets raised questions about their motives for being on the flight.

Rescuers in several countries are searching for the plane that had 239 people on board. With INQUIRER.net