Missing MH370: Flight captain a "political fanatic," reports Daily Mail

PETALING JAYA: With the focus back on the crew and passengers of missing Flight MH370 after fears were raised of a hijacking, police are looking further into the background of flight captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

Intelligence sources said the investigations would include political and religions leanings of the two pilots, and the travel pattern of all on board. The probe would also include their hobbies and behaviour with their friends.

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.