Kota Kinabalu: THE mother of Zara Qairina Mahathir believes the case attracted widespread public attention because she was not given a proper explanation of the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s death, the Coroner’s Court heard on Monday.
Noraidah Lamat, 46, said this when Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan asked for her opinion on why the case had gone viral.
She said she had yet to receive the explanation she believed should have been provided to her as Zara’s next of kin.
Asked what she believed had happened to her daughter on the night of July 15, 2025, despite not being at the scene, Noraidah said she was still waiting for the official police investigation report.
She told the court that while Zara was in hospital, she had asked the school to help retrieve her daughter’s personal notebooks in the hope that they would shed light on the incident.
“While I was outside the emergency ward, I placed my trust in the school to support me in finding out and investigating what had really happened to Zara.
“I asked for Ustaz Azhari’s help to obtain Zara’s notebooks, which she usually kept in her cupboard.
“Zara liked writing about people who were mean to her, as well as those who were kind to her. Could Ustaz get me Zara’s notebooks? He said he would help me find them.
“I hoped the notes could help provide a picture of what had actually happened to my daughter,” she said.
Noraidah said she also approached religious teacher Siti Khadijah Ahmad, hoping the school would assist her in obtaining information about the incident.
However, when asked by the Coroner whether she had received the notebooks, she said she only obtained copies through the family’s lawyers during a meeting at their law firm.
She confirmed that this took place after the inquest proceedings had begun.
Noraidah also told the court that she only learned how the notes labelled Y1 to Y15 had been found at the school through an explanation provided by the family’s lawyers.
She said the school had never informed her about the discovery.
