Megat Junid’s eldest son Megat Fairouz Junaidi said it was very odd for such powers to be delegated to a deputy minister without the knowledge of Dr Mahathir himself as the then home minister.

“We are hopeful that Tun Mahathir, who was very much respected by our late father, had a slip-of-the-tongue moment when he said those words.

“If he (Megat Junid) did sign those detention orders, it must have been done upon approval and with the knowledge of Tun Mahathir.

“In fact, there is a big possibility that it was done after instruction from Tun Mahathir himself as the then home minister and prime minister,” he told a press conference here today.

Megat Fairouz, representing his siblings and mother Faizah Shuaib, said this in response to a blog post which stated that Dr Mahathir had denied that he was the one who signed detention orders under the ISA.

The blog post also stated that Mahathir admitted that even after taking over the post of home minister from Musa Hitam in 1986, he had delegated the powers to detain any individuals under the ISA to Megat Junid, who served as deputy home minister for 11 years.