STUDENT SURRENDERED PACKAGE WITH ZARA QAIRINA'S NOTES - EX-HEAD WARDEN 

KOTA KINABALU, Jan 22 (Bernama) -- The former head warden of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Agama Tun Datu Mustapha, Papar, 31-year-old Azhari Abd Sagap, told the Coroner's Court today that a student had handed over a plastic package containing the late Zara Qairina Mahathir’s notes.

Recalled as the eighth witness, Azhari said the student surrendered the package to dorm warden Syukriah Fauzi, who then passed it to him before he subsequently handed it to the police.

"Everything in that plastic bag was from the student, who had received it from Zara Qairina," he said while answering questions from lawyer Shahlan Jufri, who is representing Zara Qairina's mother, Noraidah Lamat, before Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan today.

Azhari said the student surrendered the package to Syukriah on the day Zara Qairina died. 

He added that he never met the student in person but had contacted her to ask when the items were given by Zara Qairina, but the student could not recall the date.

In response to further questions, Azhari said he received Zara Qairina's two earliest diaries on July 17, 2025, following a meeting at the school, before handing them over to the police.

He said the meeting also discussed matters relating to Zara Qairina, including images from two pages of her diary.

Meanwhile, Shahlan informed the media that several child witnesses would be recalled and that new witnesses, including a teacher, would also be called to testify.

Zara Qairina, 13, died on July 17 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she had been admitted a day earlier after being found unconscious near a drain at her school hostel in Papar at 4 am.

The AGC ordered her remains exhumed for a post-mortem on Aug 8, before announcing a formal inquest into her death on Aug 13.

The inquest proceedings will resume in camera tomorrow as they involve child witnesses.

-- BERNAMA