By Olivia Miwil
KOTA KINABALU: The presence of a blood stain on one of the loose pages linked to the late Zara Qairina Mahathir does not directly prove that the handwriting on the page belongs to the person the blood came from, the coroner's court was told.
Lawyer Joan Goh questioned whether a loose page marked as "Y8" was indeed written by Zara Qairina.
"This is affirmed by the presence of her blood on Y8A, agree?" she asked handwriting expert Dr Linthini Gannetion during the 76th day of the inquest.
Y8 is one of the 15 torn pages examined by the witness. The front of Y8 is labelled Y8A, while the reverse side is labelled Y8B.
Linthini, who is the 74th witness in the inquest, replied that the blood stain had nothing to do with the handwriting.
"If the blood is hers, it doesn't mean that the handwriting belongs to her," she said before Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan.
Earlier in the inquest, Linthini also told lawyer Mohd Luqman Syazwan Zabidi that the 15 torn pages, marked Y1 to Y15, originated from a book, "Love and Peace", marked as exhibit WK9.
The expert said she had measured the thickness of the loose pages, examined the paper fibres and page design, and conducted a reconstruction exercise to determine the page sequence and tearing mechanism.
"Finally, the number of pages in WK9 was compared with a new, untorn reference copy of the 'Love and Peace' book for a like-for-like comparison," she said, adding that she had also looked for remnants of torn pieces that were still adhering to the thread binding of WK9 and oil stain absorption analysis.
Mohd Luqman asked whether there were signs of unauthorised alterations to the contents of the loose pages, Linthini replied she would not describe them as "unauthorised" because she did not know who the authors were.
Goh is representing one of the five children accused in a case related to Zara Qairina, while Mohd Luqman is counsel for the girl's mother, Noraidah Lamat.
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