Kota Kinabalu: Several witnesses in the inquest of Zara Qairina Mahathir will be re-called after it was revealed that an original document related to the incident had not been submitted to the police earlier.
The deponents, including children and teachers, may be re-called.
During the proceedings on Wednesday, all parties agreed to re-call some of the deponents and Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan set Thursday for the inquest to be continued with a fresh deponent who is a teacher.
Earlier, State Prosecution Director Nara Dollar informed the Coroner that following the discovery of a document revealed by the 53rd deponent, 15 child witnesses had been called, but the investigation team intended to re-call only two of them.
Nara also told the court that, following the new development, seven witnesses have yet to testify. Her team is not keen to call them, but she is unsure about the intentions of the defense counsels.
From Zara’s mother’s team, counsel Rizwandean M. Borhan said that after reviewing the newly discovered documents, his team intends to call four child witnesses — one previously recalled and three new.
He added that they plan to call a teacher as well, depending on the testimony of the 53rd deponent.
For Zara’s father, counsel Clarice Vyone Conrad stated they wish to re-call two teachers from SMKA Tun Datu Mustapha.
For Student A, counsel Datuk Ram Singh said he had reviewed the documents and obtained the children’s names.
While he agreed with the investigation team’s approach, he expressed concern over the children’s mental state at the time and reserved the right to call any of them whose messages or statements are relevant.
He also mentioned that some teachers may need to be re-called.
The investigation team informed the Coroner that they will first finish calling all teachers, including those to be re-called, followed by child witnesses, Zara’s mother, and police witnesses.
All parties have received copies of the documents related to Zara’s incident, which had previously been kept in the school’s Discipline Unit file.
The documents were revealed by Nur Shukriah Mohd Fauzi, the 53rd deponent, following a question from counsel Farrah Nasser.
The revelation shocked and disappointed all present, as the documents contained students’ actual accounts of the incident and had remained undisclosed until now.
The inquest continues today (Thursday).
