AGC orders inquest into Zara’s death

Fighting for Zara: Kiffy Razak (left) and Siti Nurhaliza are among those showing solidarity for Zara Qairina on social media. — Photo taken from @kiffy_razak’s Instagram

KUALA LUMPUR: An inquest will be carried out to look into the death of Zara Qairina Mahathir, says the Attorney-General’s Cham­bers.

The decision, it said, was made after reviewing the police investigation report on the case submitted on Aug 12.

“The inquest will be conducted under Section 339(1) of the ­Crimi­nal Procedure Code to determine the cause and circumstan­ces of her death, including if there were any criminal elements invol­ved.

“The process will be handled by the Coroner’s Court indepen­dently and transparently in accordance with the law,” said the department in a statement yes­terday.

Welcoming the decision, Zara Qairina’s family lawyers said this fulfilled all their requests to the authorities as part of efforts to find out what led to the death of the 13-year-old who was found unconscious in a drain at 4am on July 16 near her school hostel in Papar, Sabah.

She was later pronounced dead at Hospital Queen Elizabeth on July 17.

However, since her death, there have been three clips of audio recordings circulating online, purportedly featuring phone ­conversations between the teenager and her mother, Noraidah Lamat.

The audio clips, which were later confirmed to be authentic by the family’s lawyers, indicated that Zara had complained to her mother about harassment by a group of senior students at her school.

There has since been a surge of public outrage and solidarity in the case, with hashtags #Justice­forZara and #JusticeforZara­Qairina dominating social media platforms X and TikTok, with more than 114,000 posts so far.

Among those who showed their solidarity in the case was none other than Malaysian icon and singer Datuk Seri Siti Nurhaliza.

In an immediate reaction, lawyers Shahlan Jufri, Rizwandean M. Borhan and Mohd Luqman Syazwan Zabidi said they will be applying to the coroner to be given the opportunity to be invol­ved in the inquest proceedings.

“We hope that the inquest proceedings will run smoothly and conclude in a short time.

“Justice for Zara is our main goal in all actions we take,” the lawyers said in a statement.