KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 — Police today denied altering the image of an Iranian who boarded missing flight MH370 with a stolen passport, saying the superimposed photograph was the result of an overlap during duplication.

The law enforcement agency also said it stood by the accuracy of the photographs disseminated to the press despite the visual anomaly.

“What actually happened was the two pictures were stapled together but the bottom portion of the second suspect’s photo was torn off.

“When we photocopied the photo of the second suspect, it overlapped with the photo of the first one,” assistant chief inspector-general of police secretariat Asst Comm Datin Asmawati Ahmad was quoted as saying by The Star in a report today.

The discrepancy of the photos handed out when Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar revealed the identity of one of the dubious passengers as 19-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad yesterday earlier led to questions of their authenticity.

Interpol later identified the second Iranian as Delavar Seyed Mohammad Reza, 29.

Both boarded the still-missing MH370 using stolen passports on Saturday, fuelling speculation of foul play, but authorities are now leaning towards the conclusion that they were only trying to smuggle themselves into Europe.