Zara Qairina Mahathir
KOTA KINABALU (June 24): A forensic document examiner testified in the Coroner’s Court here that many pages from the late Zara Qairina Mahathir’s green PVC-covered book title ‘Love and Peace’ were missing.
Dr Linthini Gannetion told Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan that loose handwritten sheets in evidence, marked Y1 to Y15, were torn from the book, which was marked as WK9.
Linthini, who is also a certified handwriting expert, is a witness called by the legal team of Zara’s mother Noraidah Lamat to assist the coroner in this inquest.
Under examination by counsel Mohd Luqman Syazwan Zabidi, the witness explained that tearing mechanism is the manner paper is torn – upwards, sideways, together as a bundle, or in single page form.
On the variety of tearing mechanisms, Lintini replied it suggested the order in which the pages were removed.
“It suggests that the sheets, namely Y2 and Y7, which are the corresponding pair, were actually removed first. Then subsequently Y5, Y6, and Y8 together with their corresponding pages were pulled together in a sideways manner,” she testified.
The witness further said as the integrity of the book’s binding had already been compromised, the corresponding pages Y1, Y2, Y3, and Y4 would fall loose, making them easier to remove.
She said Y9 looked like it was also removed sideways because there was a very big portion of the corresponding page still remaining.
“So, this is the sequence of page removal from the bundle,” said the witness.
To another question, Linthini testified that she could not rule out elements of tampering because there was some kind of alteration and deletion of pages and the remaining pages in WK9.
“Y1 to Y15 also has mixed authorship pattern where certain handwriting within the bundle Y1 to Y15, I cannot conclusively determine due to absence of contemporaneous exemplar materials,” she added.
The inquest resumes on June 25.
Zara, 13, was found under her dormitory building on July 16, 2025 and died the next day in hospital.
Her remains were exhumed on Aug 9, 2025 and a postmortem was performed on Aug 10 at the Department of Forensic Medicine, Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
On Aug 20, 2025, five minors, who were give the pseudonyms Student A, B, C, D, and E, were charged with using insulting words against Zara.
