KOTA KINABALU - The security guard on duty the night Zara Qairina Mahathir was found unconscious informed the Coroner’s Court that the senior student, who discovered the victim, claimed to have woken early to do her laundry.
Testifying on the seventh day of the inquest into the teenager’s death, Linah Mansoding @ Jaliha, 65, said the student in question reported waking early because she was worried there would be a long queue for the laundry.
Linah was being questioned by Joan Goh, counsel representing a teenager accused of bullying the deceased.
Goh: When the senior student ran to find you - at that moment, did you know where she was? That is to say, her position when she first observed the deceased?
Linah: At 3 am, she said she heard a sound like something falling. She wanted to wash clothes… she had woken early because the queue (would be) long. While preparing to wash clothes, she heard a noise like an object falling, looked, and immediately called for me.
Questioned by Nurul Rafiqah Afdul Mutolip, counsel representing Zara Qairina’s father, Linah said she had never seen the said senior student washing clothes at 2.00 am.
The mother of four stated that hostel students typically washed their clothes around 10.00 pm, after the evening preparatory class, usually in groups, or sometimes alone.
Nurul Rafiqah: In your experience, is it common for students to be walking in the hostel grounds around 2.00 am?
Linah: No, at 2.00 am it is very rare. They are usually asleep by then.
Nurul Rafiqah: Have students ever washed clothes at 2.00 am?
Linah: Never.
Nurul Rafiqah: Have you ever observed the senior student washing clothes around 2.00 am before this incident?
Linah: Never.
The inquest proceedings before Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan will resume next Wednesday, Sept 17.
Zara Qairina died on July 17 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she had been admitted a day earlier after being found unconscious in a drain near her school hostel in Papar at 4 am.
On Aug 8, the Attorney General’s Chambers ordered her remains to be exhumed for a post-mortem, before announcing an inquest into her death on Aug 13. - BERNAMA