December 4, 2025
Local
Local
KOTA KINABALU, Oct 24 — A junior student told the Coroner’s Court here today that she saw Zara Qairina Mahathir looking pale in the dormitory toilet the night before her death.
The testimony came from the 20th child witness, a student of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Agama Tun Datu Mustapha, Papar, during the 27th day of the inquest into Zara Qairina’s death before Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan.
According to lawyer Mohd Syarulnizam Mohd Salleh, who represents Zara Qairina’s mother, the witness recounted seeing Zara Qairina around 12.30 am on July 16 when she and a friend went to the third-floor toilet of the school dormitory.
While standing in front of the mirror, the witness noticed Zara Qairina peeking over the top of a toilet cubicle wall.
“The witness said Zara appeared to be checking whether anyone else was in the toilet. The lights were on, and she could clearly see Zara, whose face looked quite pale,” Mohd Syarulnizam told reporters after the proceedings.
He added that the witness waited for about five minutes, but when Zara Qairina did not come out, she went to alert the dorm leader and the victim’s roommates.
“However, no one in the dorm wanted to get up. The dorm leader said, ‘Why is she locked in? Just let her be,’ while the others, who seemed sleepy, went back to bed,” he said.
The witness also confirmed that a culture of harsh or sarcastic reprimands by senior students towards juniors existed in the dormitory, with scoldings often delivered loudly without naming anyone, potentially causing embarrassment.
Meanwhile, lawyer Joan Goh, representing one of the teenagers implicated in Zara Qairina’s bullying case, said the 21st child witness, also a student at the same school, told the court that Zara often kept her emotions to herself and expressed them in a diary.
Zara Qairina, 13, died on July 17 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, a day after she was found unconscious near a drain outside her school hostel at 4 am.
The inquest will resume on Monday, Oct 27. — Bernama
