KOTA KINABALU: The Home Minister will deliver a ministerial statement regarding the situation surrounding the death of Zara Qairina Mahathir at Parliament on Monday (Aug 18).
Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the statement was made in response to the questions raised by several Members of Parliament over the case. It would be made between 11am and 10.30 am that day.
He stated that Bukit Aman’s special team has taken over the investigation from the Papar District Police and the relevant station after identifying signs of incompetence on the part of the investigating officer (IO).
“The IO’s decision not to proceed with a post-mortem examination created the perception that the police were attempting to cover something up,” he told reporters after co-chairing the Main Committee on the Management of Foreign Nationals in Sabah with Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor at Menara Kinabalu here on Thursday (Aug 14).
Saifuddin also said that there was a consent letter signed by Noraidah Lamat, Zara Qairina’s mother, requesting that no post-mortem be carried out, a detail that was previously unknown to the public. However, Noraidah said that she was in a state of confusion and was not thinking clearly when she signed the document and would not have done so..
“Still, the IO’s failure to proceed was deemed inappropriate. This is why an order was issued to exhume the body, and a post-mortem was conducted by medical experts,” he said.
Preliminary findings, he added, were consistent with the initial medical examination on the cause of death.
These results have been explained to Zara Qairina’s mother and her lawyer.
“I believe that concludes the matter. On Monday, I will personally present a ministerial statement in Parliament to provide further clarification,” he said.
On July 16, Zara Qairina was found unconscious beside a drain at her religious school dormitory in Papar. She was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and was pronounced dead the next day.
The Attorney General’s Chambers later ordered the exhumation of the Form 1 student’s body, and a post-mortem examination was carried out on Sunday (Aug 10).
Her remains were reburied at the Tanjung Ubi Islamic Cemetery in Sipitang on Aug 11.
