KOTA KINABALU: A forensic document examiner told the Coroner’s Court here that most of the disputed notes and other exhibits produced as evidence in the inquest into Zara Qairina Mahathir’s death matched her handwriting.
Nurul Atiqah Mohd Noh, a forensic document examiner, said on Monday (Sept 8) that she analysed more than a dozen exhibits against handwriting samples from Zara Qairina’s school exercise books and notebooks, which showed strong similarities.
She explained that examinations using a Video Spectral Comparator and magnification tools revealed “significant similarities” between the victim’s confirmed handwriting and most of the exhibits marked Y1 to Y7, Y9 to Y15, W1 to W6, as well as Y8.
Among the exhibits were W1, a book titled NOTES containing disputed handwriting, W2 (a loose sheet containing disputed handwriting), W3 (a book titled Diamonds, containing disputed handwriting), W4 (a Kerajaan Negeri Sabah-issued book containing handwriting samples of Zara Qairina marked SA), while W5 and W6 are Bahasa Melayu and Science textbooks, containing the victim’s handwriting also each marked SA.
“The writing style is round, printed rather than cursive, with consistent spacing and letter formation. Certain characters, such as ‘y’, ‘i’, ‘d’, capital ‘M’ and ‘E’, as well as the numbers six, four and nine, were written in the same way,” she testified.
However, discrepancies were found in Diamonds (W3), which appeared to contain entries by more than one person. Nurul Atiqah suggested the book was jointly used by Zara Qairina and a school friend, with some pages showing handwriting inconsistent with her style.
The court also heard that some entries carried conflicting dates, including Jan 20, 2025, and Jan 24, 2024, on the same page, raising questions about when the writings were made.
Certain notes tendered as exhibits reflected Zara Qairina’s emotional struggles. Among them were the phrases “aku rindu kau” (I miss you) and “aku tidak mahu jadi anak durhaka” (I do not want to be an ungrateful daughter), some of which were directed to her mother, Noraidah Lamat.
Nurul Atiqah stated that it was unlikely the writings were forged, given their volume and consistency across various topics over a long period.
Red stains resembling blood were also seen on at least two documents, though their source has yet to be determined.
The inquest, which has drawn considerable public attention, will continue with further testimony in the coming days.
