Interpol reveals identity of second dubious MH370 passenger

KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 — An Iranian named Delavar Seyed Mohd Reza was today identified as the second person who boarded missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) MH370 using a stolen passport, according to international law enforcement agency Interpol.

This follows a revelation by Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar this afternoon that another Iranian, 19-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, had used a stolen Austrian passport to board the flight that is now missing for over three days.

Speaking at a press conference in France today, Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble confirmed that both Iranians had arrived in Kuala Lumpur together using their Iranian passports.

“The two landed on February 28 using their Iranian passports,” Noble said. “They then boarded flight MH370.”

Noble also said that disappearance of MH370 did not appear to involve foul play.

“The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it is not a terrorist incident.”

Noble pointed out that attention over the duo that had been burning when terrorism was suspected was now waning when it appeared that the use of the stolen passports was pointing to the more mundane “people smuggling”.

He then repeated his warning that more than a billion people had boarded international flights using stolen passports in the previous year, and pointed to the fact that the perpetrators of the September 11, 2011 terrorist attacks had entered the US using stolen passports.

Pouria had boarded using a passport stolen from Austrian Christian Kozel, while Delavar used another belonging to Italian Luigi Maraldi.

The revelation had previously fuelled speculation of foul play in the case of MH370’s disappearance.

Data had revealed that the tickets for Pouria and Delavar were purchased with cash in Phuket, Thailand and were for one-way.

But the Thai travel agent who arranged for the tickets later spoke to the media to discount the possibility of terrorism involving the duo, explaining that she was asked to book the cheapest available for the two, which turned out to be ones that involved a transit flight on MH370.

Despite today’s revelations, the IGP maintained that terrorism has not been ruled out in the case of the missing MAS flight.

MH370 disappeared shortly after departed Kuala Lumpur for Beijing in the early hours of March 8.

There were 239 people on board flight MH370, including 12 crew members and two infants.