The 18th witness in the inquest into the death of Zara Qairina Mahathir told the Kota Kinabalu coroner’s court today she and her friends had lost money and had set off on an investigation of their own.
She said that on the night of the incident, several other students called Zara to meet next to her dormitory over the loss of some students’ bank cards.
Lawyer Syarulnizam Salleh said the witness told the court they suspected Zara, and so their friends conducted a spot check on her locker and bag while she was next door.
“The witness said the students checked Zara’s belongings and found one or two flag badges,” Sinar Harian quoted Syarulnizam as saying outside the courthouse at the end of the 19th day of the inquest before coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan.
He said the witness told the court she saw Zara re-enter her room, apparently angry, at 11pm.
According to him, the witness said Zara had closed her locker and lay on the floor crying in front of her cupboard, and that she shouted, denying the accusations of theft.
“The witness also said that around the fasting month, she and her friends, as well as Zara, had also lost money and had conducted a spot check.
“She said a counsellor called her in for questioning, but did not ask her about what happened on July 15,” he said.
Besides Syarulnizam, lawyers Shahlan Jufri, Rizwandean Borhan, Luqman Syazwan Zabidi, Farrah Nasser and Elhanan James are representing Zara’s mother, Noraidah Lamat.
Zara, 13, was pronounced dead at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on July 17, after being found unconscious in a drain near her school dormitory at about 4am on July 16.
The inquest continues.
