‘Coroner to determine Zara’s cause of death’

Tracing the cause: Ram (second from right) and his team used a mannequin to recreate and identify the injuries Zara Qairina sustained from her fall at the school hostel in Papar.

KOTA KINABALU: It is for the Coroner’s Court to decide whe­ther 13-year-old Zara Qairina Mahathir leapt from her school dormitory balcony on her own accord, forensic pathologist Dr Jessie Hiu told the inquest into the teenager’s death.

“That is for the court to decide,” said Dr Hiu when questioned by counsel Datuk Ram Singh, who pressed her on whether Zara Qairina might have jumped from the third floor of her Papar hostel.