Kota Kinabalu: A tense moment occurred during the inquest into the death of Zara Qairina Mahathir on Wednesday when Coroner Judge Amir Shah Amir Hassan walked out of the courtroom without instructing the proceedings to stand down.
The inquest had been paused for more than 30 minutes before the coroner’s sudden departure left those in the courtroom speechless for a while.
Before leaving the courtroom, Amir twice asked whether he was being fair enough.
The exchange occurred after counsel Datuk Ram Singh raised concerns over the manner in which consultant psychiatrist Dr Wong Haw Haw, the 75th deponent in the inquest, was responding to questions posed to him.
Coroner: “Am I not fair enough?”Ram: “You are fair, Tuan.”Coroner: “Am I not fair enough?”Ram: “No. Tuan, let’s not get too agitated with this. He is going round and round and explaining. I just want him to answer questions directly.”Earlier, Ram had repeatedly asked Wong to provide direct answers to his questions, including on the cause of Zara’s fall and whether the teenager was alone before the incident.
When the proceedings resumed after more than half an hour, Amir apologised over the outburst, saying it was the first time in his 21 years on the bench that he had “burst up”.
Amir also said it was the first time he had gone down from the bench and experienced slight chest pain.
He said this after Ram tendered his sincere apologies to him, while counsel Datuk Rizwandean M Borhan also apologised for being excessive and for objecting to a question.
Ram: “As a senior lawyer, it is not meant as what maybe your Honour might think or the audience in this court. All I ask is for the witness to do is to answer questions directly. So, I tender my sincere apologies, first of all, to Tuan. I know we are towards the end of the inquest. It is not done yet.”Coroner: “Did you in any way insinuate that the bench is not being fair to you?”Ram: “No, don’t use the word insinuate. I have not the slightest indication or slightest thought in my mind on that issue. All I said was let us all be fair. Of course, I did not want to ignore that too, but by saying that to him, I want to proceed. Of course, it came as a shock to me as counsel in this inquest that Tuan walked out just now. I hope this thing will not happen again.”Rizwandean: “I would also like to tender my apologies if my talk was a bit excessive and I have objected to the question. So, I tender my sincerest apologies.”Coroner: “In fact, I prepared some script, but let it be. It is me who apologise to you all because this is the first time in my entire 21 years on the bench for bursting up.
This is the first time. And this is the first time that I went down from the bench, and rasa sakit dada sikit (a little pain in my chest).
“Let’s not be emotional. Let’s be professional. That is the main aim for this inquest.
“Datuk Ram, I accept your apology as well as Rizwandean but with caution. With caution that we should conduct this inquest as I remember I have given this reminder back earlier again, isn’t it? That we conduct it smoothly, fairly and professionally.
“It is important for the witness to answer and explain the answer because there is no cross-examination. As much as I can be fair to you, so please be fair to me as well.”
