KOTA KINABALU: The mother of deceased Form One student Zara Qairina Mahathir has handed over Zara’s phone containing videos and audio to the police at the Karamunsing police station.
Noraidah Lamat arrived at the Karamunsing police station at around 4pm on Thursday (Aug 7) and was accompanied by several members of a non-governmental organisation.
The audios were believed to contain conversations of fear and concern due to bullying, and possible names of students or suspects, which could have links to her death.
Her lawyers Hamid Ismail and Shahlan Jufri were also present but they were not involved in the handing over process.
Hamid said even though the handphone has been given to the cops for further investigations, Noraidah still has the backup audios.
When met outside the police station, he told reporters that Noraidah was requested to hand over the handphone last night, but since she had a four-hour meeting session with police in Sipitang, they allowed her to go home and rest first.
“So only today, we came here to Karamunsing police station to hand over the mobile phone,” he said.
Hamid said other updates to this case remained the same, where the request for exhumation and autopsy is still pending.
Asked whether Noraidah had refused to authorise a postmortem on her daughter after the incident, he said there was no request for autopsy in the first place.
“So it is not a matter of her not wanting to sign for it but there was no postmortem conducted,” he said.
Hamid asked that speculations and negative comments on this case to stop, saying that Noraidah is in a pressured state as she had just lost her daughter.
“She needs support and prayers from the public, that’s all,” he said.
Zara was pronounced dead a day after she was believed to have fallen from the third floor of her school hostel in SMA Tun Datu Mustafa in Papar, on July 16.
Her death has led to various speculations, including allegations of bullying.
