ZARA QAIRINA INQUEST: TRAUMA DELAYED CHILD WITNESS’S ACCOUNT, SAYS MOTHER

KOTA KINABALU, April 1 (Bernama) -- The mother of a child witness told the Coroner’s Court here today that her daughter only shared her account of the incident involving Form One student Zara Qairina Mahathir after nearly three months, as she was traumatised.

The 41-year-old woman said her daughter, the 65th child witness in the inquest into Zara Qairina’s death, shared further details of the incident with her in September and October last year.

She later spoke to a teacher at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Agama Tun Datu Mustapha, Papar, Ustazah Shukriah Fauzi, between January and February, to confirm if her daughter had also been interviewed about the incident.

“My daughter told me why she felt traumatised. When I asked why she only spoke up now, she said she was afraid. We noticed changes in her after the incident; she was uncomfortable and felt guilty,” she told lawyer Nurul Rafeeqa Afdul Mutolip, representing the victim’s father, before Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan at today’s proceedings.

In her testimony, the woman said that when she met her daughter on July 16, 2025, her daughter told her Zara Qairina had fallen from the hostel building and asked her to pray for her, without giving further details.

“At the time, I saw that my daughter was emotional, distressed, and sobbing. It wasn’t until nearly three months later that she started to share more details about what had happened,” she said.

The woman, the 66th witness in the inquest into Zara Qairina’s death, said her daughter had promised to meet her friend at Block A of Rabiatul Adawiyah after prep the night before the incident, but fell asleep.

The witness said her daughter recalled waking around 1 am to go to the hostel block to meet her friend, and on her way back to her room in Block B, she saw a female student on the third floor of Block A.

The woman said her daughter then went up to the third floor, tapped the female student on the back, and realised it was Zara Qairina, whom she held by the hand and led into a room before returning to her own room in Block B Sumaiyyah to sleep.

The child witness’s mother said her daughter recalled being asked by a female police officer what she knew during a group meeting with students at school; she told the officer everything, but the officer raised her voice and asked, “Why did you go to Block A at that time?” which made her daughter cry.

“Later, a male police officer comforted my daughter, and she shared everything with him, though she isn’t sure if it was recorded,” she said.

The woman said that after the incident involving Zara Qairina, her daughter became withdrawn, appeared to blame herself, and often trembled from the trauma she experienced in the hostel.

“My daughter told me that the day before the incident, she noticed Zara wasn’t her usual cheerful self, and when she tried to talk to her, Zara just smiled and didn’t respond.

“My daughter blamed herself for not speaking to Zara, believing that if she had, the incident might not have happened. She was busy with school hockey competitions and practice at the time,” she said.

After her daughter’s disclosure, the woman contacted a school teacher to report the matter before giving her statement to the police.

Meanwhile, lawyer Shahlan Jufri, representing Zara Qairina’s mother, said the child witness came forward to give her testimony in the inquest out of fear of being misunderstood or blamed.

Shahlan said the child witness told him she was worried and afraid of being misunderstood by the media and netizens, as she was considered the last person to see Zara Qairina before the tragic incident involving the Form One student.

Proceedings continue tomorrow.

It was reported yesterday that the 65th child witness, not initially listed, came forward to testify in the inquest into Zara Qairina’s death.

Zara Qairina, 13, died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on July 17, 2025, a day after being found unconscious in a drain near her school dormitory at around 4 am.

On Aug 13, 2025, the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) ordered the inquest following a review of the police investigation report.

On Aug 8, 2025, the AGC issued an order to exhume the late girl’s body to allow a post-mortem to be conducted.

-- BERNAMA