'Zara Qairina's diary pages torn, other handwriting found' - Expert

KOTA KINABALU – Elements of interference involving several documents linked to the late Zara Qairina Mahathir could not be conclusively ruled out, the Coroner’s Court was told today.

Certified forensic document examiner and handwriting expert Dr Linthini Gannetion said her findings were based on removed pages, the use of different inks, erased writing and variations in date formats across the documents.

“Based on my observation, the removed pages, differences in ink types in certain sections, presence of erased writing and inconsistencies in date patterns across several pages indicate that interference in documents Y1 to Y15 cannot be conclusively ruled out,” she said before Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan.

Linthini said the documents labelled Y1 to Y15 were confirmed to be torn pages from a ‘Love and Peace’ diary believed to belong to Zara.

She said the diary originally contained only 106 ruled pages, compared to 228 pages in a reference book of the same type, indicating that many pages had been removed before the diary was examined.

She explained that the varying tear marks on documents Y1 to Y15 also indicated that the pages were not torn out in the same manner.

Linthini said she could not conclusively determine the authorship of several pages due to variations in handwriting and because samples of Zara’s handwriting from the same period were insufficient for precise comparison.

However, she said the handwriting on pages marked Y10B, Y11A, Y11B, Y12A, Y12B, Y13A, Y13B, Y14A, Y14B, Y15A and Y15B showed strong similarities with Zara’s handwriting between February and mid-April 2025 and in her opinion, were written by her.

She also found that Zara did not usually record dates consistently in her journal entries based on the examined writing samples. However, almost all pages in documents Y1 to Y15 contained dates, except Y8B and Y13B.

In addition, Linthini detected the use of different pens in certain sections, suggesting that some information may have been added at different times.

“On page Y4B, the letters ‘hallenge’ in the word ‘challenge’ were written in pencil, while the rest was written in pen. On page Y13A, the phrase ‘Jala imut’ is inconsistent with the handwriting characteristics of the late Zara and appears to have been written by another individual,” she said.

The 74th witness in the inquest, who holds a PhD in Forensic Document Examination from Universiti Sains Malaysia said her analysis was limited because not all laboratory tests could be conducted as the evidence could not be taken to the lab for more comprehensive analysis.

Zara Qairina Mahathir died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on July 17, 2025, a day after she was found unconscious in a drain near her school dormitory at about 4am. - BERNAMA