Zara Qairina wrote “pergi mati” in her diary

Blood-stained journal among exhibits in inquest into Zara Qairina’s death



Noraidah Lamat, the mother of the late Zara Qairina Mahathir, attends the Coroner’s Court in Kota Kinabalu on August 28, 2025, for a pre-inquest proceeding into her daughter’s death. — Bernama pic

Monday, 08 Sep 2025 5:30 PM MYT


KOTA KINABALU, Sept 8 — A blood-stained journal containing emotionally charged entries about her mother was among the documents tendered at the inquest into the death of 13-year-old Zara Qairina Mahathir today.

A co-authored book written by Zara and a friend was also among the 21 items submitted as exhibits at the Coroner’s court here.


Document expert Nurul Atiqah Mohd Noh from the Malaysian Chemist Department confirmed the journal entries were in Zara’s handwriting.

She said that all but one of the exhibits — W3 – were authored by Zara based on handwriting samples taken from her text books.


Among the 21, 15 (Y1-Y15) were loose pages, four(W1-W4) were notebooks and two (W5-W6) were reference books. The books were dated as far back as 2012 while the pages were dated up to April 2025.



During questioning lawyer Datuk Ram Singh read out excerpts from loose pages submitted where the writer expressed anger towards her mother, Noraidah Lamat, writing that she was better off without her and using foul language in her tirade.

He also pointed out the blood stains that appeared on one of the pages.


Ram: In document evidence Y8, there are blood stains on the document, did you notice?

Nurul Atiqah: Ya

Ram: Did you send it for further analysis?

Nurul Atiqah: No

Ram: As a document examiner, what do you think the stain is?

Nurul Atiqah: I do not know.

Ram is the lawyer for one of the teenagers accused of bullying Zara the night before she was found unconscious on the ground floor of her dormitory building in SMKA Tun Datu Mustapha Limauan on July 16.

Earlier, Nurul Atiqah, who is from the Department’s headquarters in Petaling Jaya said that the documents were sent to the DNA forensic lab before being sent to her for handwriting analysis.

It has yet to be determined how the stains appeared on the page or what was the original book where the pages came from.

The loose pages saw ramblings and rants about Zara’s friendships with various peers and also relationship with her mother, the latter painting emotionally negative feelings.

Ram pointed out that one of the notebooks entered into exhibit – W4 – saw Zara write “pergi mati” as the topic which Nurul Atiqah also attributed as Zara’s handwriting.

Lawyer for Zara’s mother Ridwandean M Borhan however said it was too early to confirm the writing belonged to Zara and said they would call in their own expert witness to confirm.

Meanwhile, it was also revealed that Zara had a shared diary with a friend which they took turns to write in.

“The questioned handwriting on “W3” on pages two, 7–14, 25–37, 46, 58–64 and 73–89 shows significant differences in handwriting characteristics compared with the handwriting specimen.

In questioning by lawyer Azhier Farhan, Nurul Atiqah said page one of the book had handwriting and names of both Zara and someone else because it was owned by the two of them.

Nurul Atiqah said she had experience of examining some 670 documents of which 120 were handwriting cases. Others include signatures, printing, paper and ink analysis.

Coroner judge Amir Shah Amir Hassan adjourned the court at around 5.20pm.