Next of kin of MH370 passengers seeking to declassify documents

KUALA LUMPUR: Five nextof-kin of three passengers of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 have filed a leave application for judicial review at the High Court to quash the government's decision in classifying several documents on the missing plane under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1972.

The documents were recording or communication transcript on MH370, a letter of agreement with Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, minutes of meetings of the relevant agencies, internal memos and reports on MH379 search and rescue operations and the post-mortem report.

They filed the application on Tuesday, naming the Transport Minister, the ministry's secretary-general and the government, as the first, second and third respondent, respectively.

Two of the applicants, aged 18 and 16, are the children of Tan Ah Meng, 46, and wife, Chuang Hsiu Ling @Cindy Chuang, 45, who were passengers in the airplane, together with their eldest son, Tan Wei Chew, 19.

The other three applicants are Ah Meng's parents, father Tan Hun Khong, 87, and mother Lai Chew Lai, 85, and Chuang's Taiwanese father, Chuang Hung Chien, 78.

They are seeking, among others, an order for the respondents to reveal the documents and a declaration that they have the rights over the documents.

In the application, the nextof kin of the three MH370 passengers claimed that the decision by the government in classifying the documents under OSA was inappropriate and also that the respondents failed to take into account factors that are relevant and of interests to the families of the passengers in the aircraft.

In January 2015, Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) directorgeneral Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman declared the disappearance of MH370 as an accident under the International Aviation regulations and that all 239 passengers and crew presumed to have perished.

The Boeing 777-200ER left Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.40 am on March 8, 2014, enroute to Beijing and disappeared from the radar an hour later. - Bernama