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THE High Court in Kota Kinabalu today fixed 18 March to hear an application by the mother of the late Zara Qairina Mahathir to be recognised as an interested party in a judicial review seeking to annul the inquest into her daughter’s death.
The hearing date was set by Judge Datuk Celestina Stuel Galid after lawyers Shahlan Jufri and Rizwandean M Borhan informed the court that the application had been filed on 23 December on behalf of Zara’s mother, Noraidah Lamat.
In the application, supported by an affidavit, Noraidah, as the closest next of kin, asserted that she has a direct and substantial interest in the inquest proceedings and their findings.
She contended that the applicant, the president of the non-governmental organisation Pertubuhan Kebajikan Ekonomi Semangat Bersatu Malaysia (PEMBELA), has no direct interest in the inquest. She argued that annulling the proceedings would infringe upon her statutory right to a thorough, lawful, and proper investigation into the cause of her daughter’s death.
On 21 November 2025, PEMBELA filed a separate application with the High Court seeking to quash the inquest in its entirety. The NGO argued that the inquest was conducted under the Federal Criminal Procedure Code rather than the 1959 Inquest Ordinance.
PEMBELA maintained that Sabah’s specific law provides procedural guarantees that should apply to the inquest in question. The NGO requested the court to declare the 1959 Inquest Ordinance as the applicable law and to set aside the ongoing proceedings. - February 12, 2026