Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has claimed ignorance over the Internal Security Act (ISA) detention orders that were supposedly signed by former deputy home minister, the late Megat Junid Megat Ayub.

This came after Megat Junid’s eldest son Megat Fairouz Junaidi reportedly said it would be very odd for his late father to sign the detention orders without Mahathir’s knowledge.

“I don’t know about that. I have never seen it. This is news (to me),” Mahathir told reporters in Putrajaya today when asked about Fairouz’s statement.

“The son knows what the father has done. Back then, I didn’t know, perhaps he knew more than me,” he added.

Mahathir was the prime minister and home minister at the time during the late 1980s.

Yesterday, Bernama quoted Fairouz as saying that Mahathir’s claim that his deputy Megat Junid was fully responsible for signing the detention orders was very odd, and he hoped that the claim was merely a slip of the tongue.

“We are hopeful that 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 within the knowledge of Mahathir.

“In fact, there is a big possibility that it was done upon instruction from Mahathir himself as the then home minister and prime minister,” he had said.

It is unclear from the report which blog post Fairouz was referring to.

However, the report said Mahathir had admitted in the blog post that since 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.

Megat Junid had served as deputy home minister for 11 years.