This piece of plane debris which was found on the island of La Reunion is thought to have come from flight MH370 (Picture: REUTERS/Zinfos974/Prisca Bigot)

A diplomat involved with the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been murdered, leading some to believe it was part of a conspiracy.

Zahid Raza, an Honorary Consul of Malaysia, was gunned down in Madagascar’s capital of Antananarivo last Thursday.

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Mr Raza was tasked with transporting pieces of wreckage that potentially came from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

Blaine Gibson, an American adventurer-detective who has been self-funding his own investigation into the missing plane, has called Mr Raza’s death an ‘assassination’.


Gibson claims that he himself has been receiving death threats and warnings to cease his investigation.

Autonomous underwater vehicles have been used in the search (Picture: REUTERS/U.S. Navy)

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Mr Raza was actually mid-way through transporting parts of the wreckage to investigators in Kuala Lumpa when he was shot.

Mr Gibson said he didn’t want to make an announcement about the new wreckage until it reached Malaysia, however decided to do so following Mr Raza’s death.

Dr Victor Iannello was part of the original Australian investigation into the missing place.

He said: ‘What makes a possible link to MH370 even more suspicious is that in the time period surrounding his death, Mr Raza was expected to visit the Malagasy Ministry of Transport, retrieve additional recovered pieces, and deliver those pieces to Malaysia.’

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing on 8 August 2014. Despite massive search efforts, the plane has never been found, with only a few pieces of debris turning up.

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The Malaysia Airlines flight went missing in 2014 (Picture: EPA/AHMAD YUSNI)