Zara Qairina inquest: Expert says copying handwriting across multiple pages difficult, court hears

KOTA KINABALU, June 24 — The Coroner’s Court here today was told that copying another person’s handwriting over many pages would be difficult as differences in writing habits would usually appear.

Dr Linthini Gannetion, a forensic document examiner and certified handwriting expert, said that although she would not describe such an act as impossible, it would be difficult because handwriting involves several individual features.

“I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but I would rather say it’s difficult because the speed of execution, the pen pressure, the skill level will all be different because it’s going to be a conscious act, it’s not a subconscious act.”

She said this when questioned by counsel Joan Goh, who represents one of the students accused of bullying Zara Qairina Mahathir, during the inquest proceedings before Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan.

Asked whether it would be very difficult to copy another person’s handwriting, especially when it involved a large number of pages, Dr Linthini replied: “Yes, to a certain extent I agree with this.”

The 74th witness, who holds a PhD in Forensic Document Examination from Universiti Sains Malaysia, also explained that no two writers could write exactly alike.

She said handwriting samples from Zara Qairina’s dormmates, which may look similar to the naked eye, showed significant differences when examined in detail.

Linthini said that before comparing disputed handwriting, an examiner would first identify repeated and unconscious writing habits within a person’s own handwriting using the method ACE-V, namely analyse, compare, evaluate and verify.

“So during the analysis stage, you’ll have to do an intra-writer comparison. You’ll have to pick all those repetitive characteristics that you see in the person’s set of handwriting,” she said, adding that these repeated habits must first be identified before comparison can be made with the questioned material.

Linthini also told the court that she could not confirm that all writings on the loose pages marked Y1 to Y15 belonged to Zara Qairina, as there were insufficient handwriting samples from around the same period to compare with some of the questioned writings.

Yesterday, Dr Linthini testified that the documents marked Y1 to Y15 had been confirmed as pages torn from the “Love and Peace” diary, believed to belong to Zara Qairina.

During today’s proceedings, several pages were displayed on screen during questioning on the examination method, showing writings that touched on Zara Qairina’s personal feelings, including matters relating to her relationship with her mother.

Linthini said that without contemporaneous documents or suitable handwriting samples from the relevant period, certain writings could not be properly compared due to the lack of comparable material.

“My conclusion is that Y1 to Y15 originates from WK9 (“Love and Peace” diary), and the WK9 actually only contains 106 pages, which, when we compare with the reference book of this book, there should be more.

“There are indentations that Y1 to Y15 have also been removed from WK9, and I cannot rule out elements of tampering because there’s some kind of alteration and deletion of pages and the remaining pages in WK9, and Y1 to Y15 also has mixed authorship pattern, where certain handwritings within the bundle I cannot conclusively determine due to absence of contemporaneous exemplar materials,” she said.

Zara Qairina died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on July 17, 2025, a day after being found unconscious in a drain near her school dormitory at about 4am. — Bernama