MALAYSIA has no knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the alleged murder of Malaysia’s honorary consul in Madagascar, Zahid Raza, a source told The Malaysian Insight.

“We have not heard anything about the honorary consul’s death being related to MH370. We were informed of his passing by his wife,” the official said.

The source said the Madagascar government had not updated Putrajaya on any investigation into Zahid’s death.

Reports had quoted MH370 debris hunter Blaine Gibson as saying that Zahid was supposed to take delivery of pieces of wreckage that he and others had collected on Madagascar’s shores, and send them by private courier to Malaysia.

Gibson said he and others who were collecting the suspected missing aircraft debris had received death threats, and now had to make other arrangements to deliver their finds to Malaysia.

Blaine said he was about to hand over the pieces believed to be from the airliner that disappeared in 2014 to Zahid before the consul was murdered on August 24.

The Malaysian Transport Ministry could not be reached for comment.

Victor Iannello, an expert from the Independent Group which is closely following the MH370 disappearance, said the timing of Zahid’s death was suspicious because he “was expected to visit the Malagasy Ministry of Transport, retrieve additional recovered pieces, and deliver those pieces to Malaysia”.

Iannello said the assination “has been met with stony silence from both Malaysia and France, despite his ties to both countries”.

Linfo.re, a French news portal based in the French Indian Ocean territory of Reunion Island, reported that Zahid owned an office supplies business in the Malagasy capital of Antananarivo.

Reunion Island was where a wing fragment from MH370 called a flaperon was found in 2015.

The portal said Zahid was shot on the night of August 24 as he was driving through the diplomatic quarter of Antananarivo. His relatives were quoted as saying that the killing was likely over a business dispute.

On August 30, the Foreign Ministry acknowledged the passing of the Malaysia honorary consul to Madagascar.

Zahid was appointed to the post in December 2013. His contract was renewed last year for three more years, to end in 2019. – September 1, 2017.