THE father of the late Zara Qairina Mahathir told the Coroner’s Court today that nobody had asked him whether he agreed to a post-mortem being conducted on his daughter.
Mahathir Mohd Hashim @ Marikin, 45, said a doctor confirmed Zara’s death at Queen Elizabeth Hospital (HQE) on July 17, 2025.
“I was never asked whether I agreed or disagreed to a post-mortem being carried out,” he said while reading his witness statement before Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan.
Mahathir, the 80th witness in the inquest into Zara’s death, said he had stayed at the hospital from July 16 until the following day while waiting for updates on his daughter’s condition.
He arrived at the emergency unit between 1pm and 3pm on July 16 after being informed that Zara had been admitted.
There, he met Zara’s mother, Noraidah Lamat, outside the emergency unit and asked where his daughter was.
After being directed to Zara’s bedside, Mahathir said he was allowed by a nurse to see her.
He said two female doctors, one Malay and the other Chinese, were attending to Zara. Both were wearing dark blue uniforms, although he could not recall their names or positions.
The Malay doctor, he said, told him Zara was in critical condition and would remain in a coma for the rest of her life if she survived.
“She told me Zara had suffered serious injuries, including bleeding in the brain, lungs and kidneys, as well as a broken leg,” he said.
Mahathir said he also noticed blood on the pillow beneath Zara’s head.
He held his daughter’s head and kissed her forehead.
“When I held the back of Zara’s head, I could feel that the area around the back of her upper neck was soft and appeared to have an indentation.
“I also noticed that her left leg had been bandaged from the thigh down to the sole of her foot,” he said.
Mahathir also told the court that he spoke to several female teachers outside the emergency unit.
He asked them what had happened to Zara and whether they were wardens at her school.
The women, he said, introduced themselves as History and Bahasa Melayu teachers.
Last saw Zara in 2017
Mahathir said he last saw Zara in person around 2017 in Sipitang.
He said he had stopped living with Zara and Noraidah around that time following disagreements with his wife.
After that, he kept in touch with Zara mainly through telephone calls and WhatsApp messages.
Mahathir said his marriage to Noraidah was his second, and Zara was their daughter.
He called her “Baby Zara”, while she referred to him as “Babah”.
He said he began working in Kota Kinabalu in mid-2015 and rented a room there because of his job.
This meant he was no longer living with Zara and Noraidah in Sipitang, although he would return home once every month or two to see them.
“I could not return every week because of financial constraints,” he said.
Mahathir said Noraidah was the one who primarily cared for and raised Zara.
He described his daughter as a cheerful child who loved the beach and the sea.
Whenever he returned to Sipitang, he said Zara would often ask him to take her to the beach.
He also recalled taking Zara and Noraidah to Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort in Tuaran when he had extra money, saying the trip gave them an opportunity to spend time together.
Mahathir said Zara had never displayed any behaviour towards him that caused concern.
Zara, 13, was found unconscious at the ground floor of her school dormitory on July 16, 2025. She was pronounced dead at Queen Elizabeth Hospital the following day. - September 7, 2026
