KOTA KINABALU: The mother of Zara Qairina Mahathir, a Form 1 student who died from an apparent fall from the third floor of her religious school hostel in Papar, is calling for an inquest to be carried out in connection with her death.
Noraidah Lamat, through her lawyers, urged the Attorney General to exercise his powers under Section 339(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code to direct a magistrate to hold the inquest.
Her lawyers - Hamid Ismail and Shahlan Jufri - said an inquest should be conducted to determine Zara Qairina’s death and whether there was any criminal element involved.
The lawyers also requested that the Attorney General return the investigation papers to facilitate the re-opening of the investigations in view of alleged shortcomings in the completed probe submitted to the Attorney General.
"The investigation process should be carried out by experienced investigating officers from Bukit Aman," the lawyers said in a joint statement on Tuesday (Aug 5).
They also urged for the exhumation of Zara Qairina's body to allow a post-mortem be done to determine the actual cause of death.
The lawyers said that they had received the "full preliminary investigation" report from the police who had also submitted their investigation papers to the Attorney General on Monday (Aug 4).
"With all due respect, we emphasise that there are serious weaknesses and shortcomings in the investigation report received by the Attorney General’s Chambers."
They claim that the investigation was limited in focus as no autopsy was conducted on Zara Qairina's body before burial and that the clothes she was wearing on July 16 were not taken by police for forensic investigation purposes.
The lawyers said it was only Tuesday (Aug 5) that the police contacted them to get the clothes used by Zara Qairina when she was found.
Furthermore, the lawyers said that the mother's statement on the bruises found on the back of Zara's body was only taken by police between Aug 3 and Aug 4 at the Sipitang police station.
"We believe that the police do not have sufficient material to effectively investigate this matter as they do not have the autopsy report as well Zara Qairina's clothing and personal belongings have yet to be examined," he said.
The lawyers also raised concern over social media posts claiming that Zara Qairina’s death was due to emotional stress from her own mother.
The lawyers said that a paper, purportedly from Zara Qairina’s “diary”, had become the source of this social media narrative, which was labelled as “material evidence”.
They felt that if it was evidence, there was a possible leak of the case’s investigation file.
“If this paper was part of Zara Qairina’s personal belongings taken from her dormitory locker by police after her death, then it suggests that the contents of the investigation file were leaked to the public to build a malicious account and create negative perceptions about Zara Qairina and her mother.
“As a result, the integrity of the investigation has been compromised,” the statement said.
"Zara's mother only wants justice for her daughter. She is always ready to assist the police in the investigation," the lawyers said.
They urged all parties to avoid any speculation that may cause defamation to any person.
Zara Qairina was found unconscious during the wee hours of July 16 near a drain below her hostel in Papar district and she died the next day at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital here.
Her mother has called for a probe into the case amid claims that she might have been bullied.
