‘No conclusion’ finding doesn’t mean entries by someone else, Zara inquest told

KOTA KINABALU: A forensic document examiner told the coroner’s court today that her inability to identify the writer of several loose sheet entries linked to the late Zara Qairina Mahathir did not necessarily mean the entries were penned by someone else.

Forensic document examiner and certified handwriting expert Dr Linthini Gannetion said her “no conclusion” finding only meant that she could not determine the writer of the documents based on the handwriting samples made available to her.

She was testifying during the inquest before coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan, responding to questions from counsel Azhier Farhan Arisin, who represents four students linked to Zara Qairina’s death.

When Azhier Farhan put it to her that a “no conclusion” finding did not suggest the entries were written by someone else, only that she was unable to reach a determination, Linthini agreed.

The court further heard that Linthini lacked.

The 74th witness, who holds a PhD in forensic document examination from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), agreed that the absence of such samples was a gap in the material available to her, and not a defect in the loose sheets themselves.

She also agreed that a comparison using similar journal-style handwriting from the same period would have yielded more reliable results, though such samples were not available to her.

She further agreed that had such samples been accessible, she might have been able to reach a conclusion.

The court also heard that the loose sheets came from the “Love and Peace” diary, believed to belong to Zara Qairina, with Linthini confirming the pages were genuine and not forgeries inserted from elsewhere.

When Azhier Farhan directed her attention to several entries about Zara Qairina’s emotional state and her writings about her mother, Linthini said her findings were that it was partly linked to the deceased and partly inconclusive.

The court was also informed that where Linthini could not identify Zara Qairina as the writer, fellow document examiner Nurul Atiqah Noh of the chemistry department had attributed those entries to her.

Zara Qairina, 13, died on July 17 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she had been admitted a day earlier after being found unconscious near a drain at her school hostel in Papar at 4am.

The Attorney General’s Chambers ordered her remains exhumed for a post-mortem on Aug 8, before announcing a formal inquest into her death on Aug 13.

The inquest resumes tomorrow.