Coroner’s Court hears 13-year-old Zara Qairina blamed for best friend’s lost wallet before death

Coroner’s Court hears 13-year-old Zara Qairina blamed for best friend’s lost wallet before death



Lawyers Azhier Farhan (centre), Datuk Ram Singh (left) and Joan Goh (right) representing four out of five students at SMKA Tun Datu Mustapha in Papar who have been charged with bullying Zara Qairina, speak to reporters after the inquest at the Coroner’s Court in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah on September 12, 2025.

Friday, 12 Sep 2025 7:33 PM MYT


KOTA KINABALU, Sept 12 — The inquest into 13-year-old Zara Qairina Mahathir today heard that the SMKA Tun Datu Mustapha student was accused of stealing her best friend’s wallet the night before she was found unconscious on the ground floor of her hostel building in Papar.

Hostel ecurity guard Linah Mansuddin told the court she was approached around 8pm on August 15 by a student known as A, who claimed her wallet containing RM300 and a bank card had gone missing.


Linah said A was close to Zara Qairina and was particularly distraught after the night of Zara Qairina’s fall.

To protect the identity of the students involved, the court was told to refer to the underaged minors only by certain letters of the alphabet.


Lawyer Azhier Farhan: Do you know that A is best friends with Zara Qairina?

Linah: Yes that’s what I was told, that’s why she was crying a lot that night.

Linah earlier testified that the student did not directly name anyone when first speaking to her, but she later heard that Zara Qairina was being blamed for the missing wallet.


“I only found out about the accusation after Zara’s fall,” Linah said.

She added that later that night, a male warden, Ustaz Rizani, came to Zara Qairina’s all-girl dormitory to speak with the dorm leaders and ask about the incident.

“This was what the dorm leader told me. She also only found out then that Zara had been accused of stealing,” Linah said.

She told the inquest she did not know why Zara Qairina was singled out among the many hostel students, but said it was possible the theft victim had complained to Zara Qairina’s seniors, who may have confronted her.

“I don’t know what they would do after receiving such a complaint. Maybe they would have called Zara in to ask her about it,” Linah said in response to questions from lawyer Shahlan Jufri, who is representing Zara Qairina’s mother.

The inquest also heard about a long-standing hostel practice known as “MA” or Mesyuarat Agung (general meeting), in which juniors were summoned by seniors for disciplinary lectures.

Linah said the practice had been banned by Form Five students, but some juniors still carried it out among themselves.

She said she did not know whether Zara Qairina had been summoned to such a session after the theft accusation but did not rule out the possibility.

Zara Qairina, a Form One student, was found unconscious in the early hours of August 16 outside her Papar boarding school dormitory and died of her injuries the next day.

The inquest resumes September 17.