Kota Kinabalu: Zara Qairina Mahathir’s stepsister, who said she had never met the teenager, told the Coroner’s Court on Tuesday that she suffered emotional distress during the seven months she lived with her stepmother.
Malianah Mahathir, 25, the 81st deponent, said she lived with her biological father, Mahathir Mohd Hashim, and stepmother, Noraidah Lamat, from late 2011 until June 2012.
She told Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan that her stepmother often used harsh and insulting words towards her biological mother, which caused her emotional distress, and that she eventually asked her father to send her back to her biological mother.
Malianah also claimed her stepmother treated her well when her father was at home, but changed her behaviour when he was away working as a driver at Sabah Oil & Gas Kimanis, during which she had to cook, wash her clothes and school uniform, prepare for school and sleep in the kitchen facing the toilet despite an empty bedroom being available.
She said she eventually left the house to live with her biological mother in Kampung Binunuk, Beaufort, and that Zara was born in 2013 after she had moved out, adding that she never met Zara because Noraidah did not allow her to see her sister.
