A trial of five teenage girls on bullying charges should be put off until an inquest is held to determine the circumstances that led to the death of schoolgirl Zara Qairina Mahathir, according to lawyers.
M Visvanathan said it was improper to begin the criminal proceedings when it was not known if bullying had contributed to Zara’s death, while Salim Bashir said it would be premature to conduct a prosecution of the five, as the trial would put the coroner’s inquiry into question.
Another lawyer, S N Nair, said the trial could be delayed to give way to the inquest. “Depending on the outcome of the inquiry, the charges against the five could be amended or withdrawn,” he added.
The coroner’s inquiry into her death is scheduled to begin on Sept 3 at the Kota Kinabalu coroner’s court.
Visvanathan said the matter was more pressing as it had been revealed that Zara had kept a detailed diary of all the alleged bullying incidents before her death.
“To facilitate a meaningful investigation into her cause of death, the post-mortem report and also all surrounding circumstances must be looked into during the inquiry,” he said.
Salim said the Criminal Procedure Code provided for a coroner to stop the inquiry when charges were levelled against suspects for an offence concerning the death of a person.
Five teenagers were charged in Kota Kinabalu children’s court on Aug 20 with uttering abusive words against Zaira Qairina which could have caused her distress. They are alleged to have done so between 10pm and 11pm on July 15 at SMK Agama Tun Datu Mustapha in Papar.
Zara died in hospital a day after she was found unconscious at 4am on July 16 after allegedly falling from the third floor of the school hostel.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers has defended its decision to charge the teenagers. He said the charges related specifically to acts of bullying and were not connected to Zara’s death.
Salim said interested parties could also seek a revision by the High Court to determine the correctness, legality and propriety of the coroner’s inquiry proceeding.
Nair said the public prosecutor could also apply for the five accused to be granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal pending the outcome of the inquest. New suspects could be prosecuted if there was evidence of culpability, he said.
