KOTA KINABALU: The inquest date for Zara Qairina Mathathir has been set to be held from Sept 3 to Sept 30, with her mother Noraidah Lamat expected as one of the witnesses.
The full dates involved are Sept 3, Sept 4, Sept 8 to 12, Sept 17 to 19 and Sept 22 to 30.
Coroner Azreena Aziz allowed for the dates after applications from the conducting officers on Monday (Aug 18).
The court was informed that there were a total of 195 statements recorded from the investigating team so far, but not all would be called as deponents or witnesses for the proceedings.
The final number would be decided by the Attorney General’s Chambers before Sept 3.
During the mention proceedings, counsel (as watching brief at the moment) for Zara’s family Hamid Ismail requested to include his team as interested parties for the inquest and to also be given copies of documents relating to the inquest, if their application was granted.
He said according to the Practice Direction 2019, there is a clause which states that only interested parties in a proceeding involving death investigations were eligible to examine witnesses.
The coroner magistrate must use their discretion to decide who is eligible and this includes parents of the child, partners or any representatives of the deceased, he said.
“If we are allowed to sit as interested parties, we apply for documents to be exhibited in the inquest to be given to us, so that we have time to go through and come up with relevant questions that could help the court in its decision making,” Hamid said.
“We only want to help because we know this case well, from the start,” he explained.
The conducting officers, however, requested for a formal application to be made, to which Hamid asked if it was possible for the coroner magistrate to decide on the spot, seeing that it was within her jurisdiction.
Hamid said the decision could be made then and there as this is not a trial but an inquiry.
“We were the ones seeking Zara’s exhumation and called for the autopsy as well as for an inquest to be made. So this court has more than sufficient power and discretion to decide at this time,” he said.
He later asked whether there was any indication from the prosecution that they would object to the formal application, and if there was none, it was better to decide immediately.
He was concerned that a later decision or an objection would prolong the hearing.
Shahlan Jufri, also representing the family, reiterated that as counsel for the family, they were not there to argue or compete against the prosecution but to seek facts on the cause of death.
“And the Practised Direction 2019 very clearly states that we are interested parties in this inquest and have the rights to examine the witnesses and to have access to all the relevant documents,” he said.
The court finally instructed the lawyers to file a formal application and a decision on whether they would be included as interested parties and whether the documents can be shared with them, would be made before Sept 3.
The other counsels present were Rizwandean M Borhan, Mohd Luqman Syazwan Zabidi, Mohd Syarulnizam Mohd Salleh and Farrah Nasser.
Also present as watching brief during the case mention was Sabah Law Society president Datuk Mohamed Nazim Maduarin.
Sitting as conducting officers were Mohd Fairus Johari, Dana Arabi Wazani, Afiq Agoes and Dacia Jane Romanus.
