NewsContent:Transcripts/Day 003
1 PRESS CONFERENCE: MH370 11 MARCH 2014 (TUESDAY), 5:30 PM SPOKESPERSON TAN SRI KHALID ABU BAKAR (INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF POLICE) DATUK MOHAMAD KHALID SHARIFF (HOME MINISTRY SECRETARY- GENERAL) DATO’ ALOYAH MAMAT (DIRECTOR GENERAL OF IMMIGRATION MALAYSIA) STATEMENT BY DATO’ ALOYAH MAMAT Malaysia Airlines has issued the list of passengers (227) including air crews (12) on board its missing MH370 that departed from KLIA at 1241 hours (8 March 2014) and expected to arrive in Beijing at 0630 hours on the same day. Following the said announcement two (2) individuals one (1) Italian and one (1) Austrian have issued statements that they were not the passengers listed on board MH370 flight manifest. Both claimed that their passports that were used by the passengers on board the said aircraft were previously reported stolen and it was then confirmed by the Interpol. AUSTRIAN PASSPORT (MR KOZEL CHRISTIAN) i. Arrival at KLIA a. The subject arrived at KLIA on 28 February 2014 (Friday) at 2028 hours and presented himself at counter K42 for immigration clearance by the Immigration Officer on duty. b. The subject produced his Austrian passport (P2979523) c. The Immigration Officer then processed the immigration clearance based on the Department of Immigrations Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)s by verifying that the bearer and the image on the biodata page in the produced passport were matched. Additionally, the 2 Immigration Officer also posed relevant questions to the subject including the reason for his travelling into the country.; and d. The Immigration Officer issued Social Visit Pass valid for 90 days to the subject (from 28 February 2014 to 28 May 2014) once he was satisfied with the immigration inspection ii. Departure from KLIA a. The subject presented himself at counter K30 on 7 March 2014 (Friday) at 2207 hours for immigration clearance by the Immigration Officer on duty. b. The subject then produced his Austrian passport (P2979523) together with the boarding pass for flight MH370 c. After verification that the subject’s entry into the country was in order and his Social Visit Pass was still valid, the subject was then allowed to proceed with his journey; and d. The Immigration Officer on duty has processed the immigration clearance based on the Department of Immigration’s SOPs e. ITALIAN PASSPORT (MR MARALDI LUIGI) iii. Arrival at KLIA a. The subject arrived at KLIA on 28 February 2014 (Friday) at 2031 hours and presented himself at counter K49 for Immigration clearance by the Immigration Officer on duty b. The subject produced his Italian passport (YA3189197) and claimed that he has arrived from Phuket by QR849 c. The Immigration Officer has processed the immigration clearance based on the Department of Immigrations SOPs by verifying that the bearer and the image on the biodata page in the produced passport were matched. Additionally the Immigration Officer also posed relevant questions to the subject including the reason for his traveling into the country; and 3 d. The Immigration Officer then issued Social Visit Pass valid for 90 days to the subject (from 28 February 2014 to 28 May 2014) once he was satisfied with the immigration inspection iv. Departure from KLIA a. The subject presented himself at counter K31 on 7 March 2014 (Friday) at 2243 hours for immigration clearance by the Immigration Officer on duty b. The subject produced his Italian passport (YA3189197) together with the boarding pass for flight MH370 c. After verification that the subject’s entry into the country was in order and his Social Visit Pass was still valid, the subject was then allowed to proceed with his journey; and d. The Immigration Officer on duty has processed the immigration clearance based on the Department of Immigrations SOPs In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that all the Department’s SOPs have been followed and strictly adhered to by the Immigration Officers on duty at KLIA in conducting the immigration clearance and verification of the two (2) subjects. STATEMENT BY TAN SRI KHALID ABU BAKAR INSPECTOR GENERAL POLICE OF MALAYSIA Assalamualaikum wbt, salam sejahtera. A very good afternoon to everyone, master of ceremony, members of the media. Upon received of the information of this missing plane early morning on the 8 th , we initiated investigation. I have appointed Dato’ Hadi Ho, the Director of Criminal Investigation Department to head the team of the investigators. We are looking into four areas. 1. Hijacking 2. Sabotage 3. Psychological problem of the passengers and crews 4. Personal problems among the passengers and crews 4 We have been thorough the passenger manifest. We have communicate with our counterparts, to at least 14 countries of which most of the passengers come from and also from other parts of the world. And we have been exchanging information and intelligence and in fact this afternoon, we a team of the officials of the Public Security Office of China visited me in the office and we have a discussion with them. In fact, the Public Cecurity Office supplied us with the photographs of all 153 Chinese passengers plus their profiles and we are going through profiles of all the passengers and crews of this missing plane. And we are also going through all the video footage the whole day from the 7 th and the 8 th at KLIA. We are checking with all our brother officers from other departments on the background of all the passengers. To date, we have uncovered two passengers which were travelling on stolen passports. And we have identified one of them as I have mentioned yesterday that we have identified one of them. This one that we have identified was Iranian by the name of Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad. He is 19 years old and he is Iranian. We believed that he is an Iranian. We have been checking his background. We have also checked him with other police organisations on his profile and we believe that he is not likely to be a member any terrorist group. We believe that he is trying to migrate to Germany. On the other person which travel on the stolen passport, we are still conducting our investigation on this one. 5 Q & A session : Q :Yang Iranian ini pemegang passport mana? Italy atau Austria? A : Yang Iranian memegang passport dari Austria. Q : Dia pernah masuk Malaysia tak? A : Daripada rekod kita semak, dia tidak pernah masuk Malaysia sebelum 28 Februari kita sedang menyiasat lagi. Q : Ada maklumat mengatakan mereka membeli passport dari sindiket di Kuala Lumpur, adakah betul dakwaan ini Tan Sri? A : Jangan dengar berita atau khabar angin, kita akan siasat. Q : Tan Sri, berkenaan dengan lima penumpang yang tidak menaiki pesawat, adakah kelima-lima tidak check in baggage mereka? A : From our investigation, there is no such thing. There was no five passengers who checked in and did not board. Everybody who booked this flight boarded the plane. Q : Tan Sri, I want to find out, the estimated financial impact of this disaster? A : I am sorry I can’t tell you. I don’t know much either. Q : If there no record of that the Iranian come to Malaysia, how does he came in? A : What?..That was before the 28th I said. When he came in on 28th, his biometric was taken with his stolen passport. Okay. Q : Tan Sri, i want to clarify one thing. A : You are from? Q : I’m from Guang Ming Daily Malaysia punya. Tan Sri, I want to clarify 1 thing, just now you were said that no five persons check-in and boarding. Did they... Adakah dia...It state that they bought the ticket and no show face in the check-in. Betul tak? A : I said.. 6 Q : I mean that is dia tidak check in tapi dia beli ticket tu. Adakah? Ada? A : Saya cakap semua orang yang...everybody that booked the flight boarded the plane. So there is no..nobody who booked the flight and did not board the plane. Q : Farid from Star. A : Yep. Q : What is the status of the investigation the possibility that this two imposter involved in the passport stealing syndicate. A : Well, we are looking into it. We are still investigating. It is still too early to come to a conclusion. Q : And is it possibility that the those two bought the stolen passport in Thailand? A : We are look ing into it. And we are working closely with our Thai counterpart. Q : Both of the stolen passport? A : We are still investigating. Q : Tasha from the Malay Mail. I would like to check here is there solid lead or solid intel on the angle of posible hijack involved. And have police already look into investigation ? A : Erm..you mean intel on? Q : Erm..any lead...any lead suggesting a possible hijack? A : We are looking into all angles. As i said, there are four main area that we are focusing on....hijacking, sabotage, personal problem among the crew and the passanger and also psychological problem among the crew and passanger. So, you know ...you must give us some time to go through all this. And we have no prior intelligent for information of any involvement of terrorist. Q : Mark from Star Television. Could you elaborate what you mean by personal problem of the passanger and psychological problem? 7 A : Well, there maybe a somebody on the flight who have bought hugh sum of insurans..who want the family to gain from it or somebody who are owe somebody so much money and you know... Q : You think that is genuine posibility ? A : Ya, we are looking into all posibility I said. Q : Can you elaborate on the search itself and the move in the Straits of Melaka? A : I’m not talking about the search here. A : We are more into the investigation. Q : Mani from Bloomberg. Tan Sri, you receive the picture and profile of all the passanger through the manifest.Is there any prominant people that was on that plane? A : We have not got... Q : And secondly, have the Iranian hosted or stay in Malaysia house here? A : We have not got all the profile and the photograph yet. As i said, they are coming. So, we are studying all the profile and the photograph. And as i said again, we are looking very closely at the video footage taken at the whole KLIA from the 7th until the plane take off. So, we are studying the behavior, pattern of all the passanger. Q : Nisha from Awani. Okay, Tan Sri tadi cakap semua yang booked ticket semua naik. Tapi bagaimana mereka yang report yang cakap mereka tak...terlepas flight? A : Ada satu orang sahaja yang terlepas flight kerana dia silap haribulan. The student....the lady student...who called MAS to cancel her booking because she mistook the date of travel. Q : Helo Tan Sri, I came from China. I have two question. Some chinese family arrive here this morning , what are the enviroment and are they safe here. 8 A : I did not meet the family but i met the official from public security department of China. Q : So that the Iranian guy you were talking about.. A : Identify please Q : I from Reuters. He about to migrate to Germany you saying? A : That what we wbelive so. Q : Are you watching closely with the Iranian authority and what is the respone so far? A : We do. We do work really closely with the Iranian authorities. And if you ask me how do i know that he want to migrate to Germany, because we are in contact with his mother. Okay. His mother is expecting him to arrive in Frankfurt. When he does’t arrive, she contacted us here and that why we knew he is the one who traveling with the stolen passport. Q : Does his mother know he using the stolen passport? A : Yes. Q : When are you saw the photograher of the two person that have the stolen passport? A : I can’t see you A : May i know who is this? Q : When are you saw the photograher of the two person that have the stolen passport? A : Sure, you need the photo? Get it from my PRO Datin Asmawati. She will give you the both photograph afterwards. Q : My question for Director of the Immigration. I’m Khadir from RTM. Yesterday the AFC reported that Secretary of General Interpol claims that we are not their database for checking the foreign passport. Is it we still using that and 9 how about our relation with Interpol and is it we use their database? If yes, did we still need old the protocol or use new protocol in future? A : Can i answer that because it is closely link to the police. Reason being now the database is now with the police. We work very closely with our Immigration Department, our brother officer in fact with all our enforcement officer especially exit and entry point. But as a...you know there is fourty million two hundred twenty six thousand one hundred and fourty reports of stolen passport in the database. So we have to work by intelligence, prior intelligence and a succeed earlier on we don’t have any prior intelligence on the activities of a terrorist so the two stolen passport were not supply to the Immigration Department. We work closely. We have officer enven in the Immigration Department in the exit and entry point. A : Now we open the floor for the international media will start form this to this.... Q : Excuse me, I’m from CCTV China actually few days before you was admitted the five passenger on boarding why today you deny for that are they are difficult for identification could you give us more details? Thank you. A : In the first place i didn’t said. What i am saying today of the finding sources of our investigation. There is no such thing as five person who did not board the plane. There is no such thing. Q : Show me that how you investigate. What was the indication let you into the considering on four main areas of focus, the hijacking, sabotage, problems, psycological problem. Why have you rule out. Why have you not included in those main area, the menchanical problem and pilot error. What were the consideration for possibly lead and what you consider for? A : For my investigation, for the police investigation we are focusing only four areas. Well, of course the expert, the DCA , the Malaysia Airport Berhad they will be focusing on that area. Q :That is the investigation that the media considering for. 10 A :This are the among others, among than the others mechanical problem this is the main area of concern right? Can you suggest any new others concept? Q : Could it have possibilty? A : We are looking into all this angle. Q : This is Pui Kuan from bloomberg. Thinks to ask question on cargo. In term of hijacking the cargo, what kind of cargo the plane are carry inside anything that was a explo, anything could be explosive or inside anything expensive as it like gold or something? A : We are going to that piece by piece from the photograph and video footage that we got. Q : I’m Yin Yin From China Daily. Do you cooperate with China officer. Do you have a plan or cooperating? A : Oh..yes, we are cooperating very closely with the China officer. Q : You have a plan or details? A : Of course we have pan but how can i tell you what our plan? Q : It’s seem to be exactly contradict what DCA said about five passenger , so now taken as confirm that there were no passenger who were. A : You take it from me there were no such things. Q : One more thing, did he help even buy the ticket you saying or there have been taken. A : No.. nobody booked the ticket that did not bought. Q : Tan Sri i would like to know the passport that this two passenger possess that’s we believed to be stolen, are they biometric. I means has that been verify at least with their fingerprint, at least match again..... their...., is that any others feature than apart from just the images. 11 A : Actually we have our biometric system, this is the first time they enter our country so we just take the biometric and then they use the same passport to depart from our country so they use the same passport so they have the same biometric so we cannot detect. Q : Is the passport biometric or not? A : Our system is biometric, but the passport is not...but i’m not sure the passport is biometric or not. But in our system, we take the biometric, the fingerprint. Q : When we enter, we have to give fingerprint 1st? A : Yes, yes, ya. Q : Then in that passport is same person? A : Yes, is the same person. Q : Orang Iran tu masuk dari mana? A : Daripada mana? Kenalkan diri. Q : Kami dari Harian Metro A : From Australia and also Italy. Q : Given your finding, do you find it now less likely that terrorism was the cause of the dissapearing of the flight? A : At this moment, i will not say less likely. Same weightage to all until we complete our investigation. A : Chanel News, Melisa. Q : So you mention about the possible mental problem of the passanger, crew, pilot. So what your finding for that front? A : Like i said, this is too early for us to announce the finding. There are more than 200 people that we have to....you know. 12 Q : How about just the pilot and the crew ? -No answer- Q : Sir, Martin Merock from the Sydney Morning Herald, is one of the area of your investigation the possibility that there were some bomb loaded through the cargo section of the plane or is there any area of you looking at? A : Of Course, we will look into all the angle, all those thing and we will. Q : Could you give us some clue? You told us there some was possible leading, could you give us some clue you got? Could you provide us some clue you got? A : That what we have going through now. 1 by 1. Slowly. Q : What confirm information have you got? A : What confirm information? A : No, nothing. That’s why we are going to those four area and we have to do it slowly one by one. If it’s confirm means it’s easy for us. Q : You said the second guy have been identified. You throughout the which part of terrorist effort? A : Second guy? I didn’t said the second guy. Q : You throughout the part of terrorist. A : Likely, but it’s not likely he is a member of any terrorist group. Q : What you based on that? A : Well, when we identified him been as a traveller on a stolen passport we focus on him. Okay, we dissiminate his information to every part of our counterpart all over the world and surely will get the reply fast. 13 Q : Sorry, TV2 Denmark. The second man travelling on a fake passport has he final destination at Copenhagen in Denmark. Do you have any idea as he was an asylum seekers as well? A : We are looking into that as well. A : With that we conclude session for today. Thank you very much. If you have any other question please email it to mano@mot.gov.my. A : Thank you very much. END