Kota Kinabalu: Seven of the 35 audio recordings of conversations between Zara Qairina Mahathir and her mother that were played during the inquest proceedings illustrated the close relationship between the mother and daughter.
Most of the audio recording of their conversations, both Zara and her mother would say “sayang, cinta, rindu, I love you,” words they expressed every time they ended their telephone calls.
In the recordings, Zara frequently shared and expressed her feelings about her situation while staying at the hostel. The conversations between the mother and daughter were recorded from March 6, 2025, to July 10, 2025.
The recordings also captured their discussions about food, clothing, studies, and friends at the hostel, as well as Zara’s complaints regarding a theft incident at the hostel.
Counsel Shahlan Jufri, who continued questioning Computer Crimes Investigation Unit analyst ASP Mohd Zaidi Abu Hassan on Monday, told the coroner that his team had submitted audio transcriptions along with a pendrive containing 42 audio recordings from WF11 (a mobile phone belonging to Zara’s mother).
Of these, 35 were conversations with Zara, while the rest were between the mother and several other individuals.
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He told the court that the audio recordings were for the purpose of the inquest, and seven of them were selected to be identified by Mohd Zaidi.
In response to Shahlan’s questions, after listening to the seven recordings played during the proceedings, Mohd Zaidi said that, based on his experience, the audio
recordings extracted from the mobile phone were genuine.
He further explained that while analysing the exhibit, namely WF11, he only extracted conversations from WhatsApp, and the call recordings could not be retrieved using his analysis software.
When asked to clarify what he meant by the recordings not being retrievable, he said that he was able to extract WhatsApp audio files, but could not find any voice call recordings in his analysis, as it was limited to WhatsApp audio and audio from other social media platforms.
Mohd Zaidi added that he could conduct a forensic examination on the 42 conversation recordings, namely the telephone call recordings between Zara and her mother, as well as with several other individuals.
He said that if the analysis conducted on the 42 audio recordings, the process would take about three to four hours, in addition to having to go through the prescribed report preparation procedures.
The inquest will resume today with the testimony from a relative of Zara’s mother.
