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THE Home Ministry will deliver a statement in Parliament next Monday (18 August) on the death of 13-year-old Zara Qairina Mahathir, amid criticism of how police handled the case.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the statement, scheduled between 11:00am and 11:30am local time, would respond to questions from Members of Parliament and explain why federal police took over the investigation from the Papar district force.
Bukit Aman’s special team assumed control after identifying what Saifuddin described as “incompetence” by the original investigating officer (IO).
He said the decision not to conduct a post-mortem “created the perception that the police were attempting to cover something up.”
During the review, investigators learned of a consent letter signed by Zara Qairina’s mother declining the procedure, a fact not previously disclosed to the public.
“The IO’s failure to proceed was deemed inappropriate. This is why an order was issued to exhume the body, and a post-mortem was conducted by medical experts,” Saifuddin told reporters in Kota Kinabalu after co-chairing the Main Committee on the Management of Foreign Nationals in Sabah with Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
“I will personally present it to provide further clarification,” he added.
He said the preliminary findings were consistent with the initial medical examination and had been shared with the family and their lawyer.
Zara Qairina died on 17 July at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu, a day after being found unconscious beside a drain at her religious school dormitory in Papar.
On 10 August, the Attorney General’s Chambers ordered her body to be exhumed for an autopsy. She was reburied the following day at the Tanjung Ubi Islamic Cemetery in Sipitang.
In a Facebook post under the name Noie AiDa, her mother, Noraidah Lamat, said she was in “shock and panic” when she signed the letter refusing the autopsy. “No advice was given, and if we had known, we would not have signed the document,” she wrote. - August 14, 2025
