Immigration officers under probe

KUALA LUMPUR: The Home Ministry is investigating the two Immigration officers who allowed the Iranian duo travelling on stolen passports on MH370 into the country and two others who let them out of the country.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told the Dewan Rakyat today that he had called in the four officers for an internal investigation.
“I will not provide the findings of the investigations now but will reveal them later when winding up,” he said.
Ahmad Zahid was responding to a question by Datuk Mahfuz Omar (PAS-Pokok Sena) who asked if the Iranians were travelling under a student pass into Malaysia like other foreign students.
He said they were using stolen passports obtained in Phuket, Thailand.
“The two used genuine Austrian and Italian passports obtained in Phuket,” he said, adding that according to police records, they came from Teheran, took Qatar Airways to Doha and proceeded from there to Phuket.
“It was in Phuket that they obtained the passports and used them to enter Malaysia,” he added.
On March 13, he had reportedly said that the four Immigration officers followed the standard operating procedure and no action will be taken against them.
Police identified the Iranians as Delavar Seyed Mohammad Reza, 29, and Pouria Nour Mohammed Mehrdad, 19.
It was reported on March 11 that Delavar and Pouria had travelled with the passports of Italian Luigi Maraldi and Austrian Christian Kozel respectively, which had been confirmed stolen in Phuket.
Both Kozel and Maraldi had previously reported their passports stolen in Thailand, and said that they were not on the missing plane.
Interpol had also reported that the two passports had been stolen.