Kota Kinabalu: Police are investigating a report filed by forensic pathologist Dr Jessie Hiu over threats in connection with her testimony in the Zara Qairina Mahathir death inquest.
Kota Kinabalu Police Chief ACP Kasim Muda said the case would be probed under Section 507 of the Penal Code for criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication.
Without disclosing the threats, he said, police would also refer the case to Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Act 1998 under its Section 233 for investigation purposes.
“Dr Jessie was informed by her employer (Queen Elizabeth Hospital Director) about the threats and immediately lodged the report on Friday afternoon (Sept 5),” he told Daily Express when contacted.
Section 233 addresses the improper use of network services, criminalising the use of electronic communication to make, create, or transmit obscene, indecent, false, menacing, or grossly offensive content with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass others.
The paper reported on Thursday that Dr Hiu, the first witness in the inquest testified that the 13-year-old student Zara’s injuries were consistent with a fall from height and showed no evidence of physical abuse.
Dr Jessie also stated that it was unlikely that Zara had accidentally fallen or been pushed from a standing position. However, she left it to the Court to determine whether Zara Qairina had committed suicide.
She has served at Queen Elizabeth Hospital since 1998 and holds a medical degree from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and a master’s in pathology from Universiti Malaya.
She conducts and supervises between 100 and 150 autopsies annually and provides expert testimony between 10 and 15 times a year at the Magistrates’, Sessions, and High Courts in Sabah and Labuan.
