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Kota Kinabalu: The Coroner’s Court heard that the alleged stressful interrogations and isolation faced by Zara Qairina Mahathir on the night before she was found beneath her school dormitory building were viewed as the direct factors contributing to her alleged suicide.

Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist Dr Chua Sze Hung testified that, based on his psychological autopsy report, suicide was the most probable cause, with the alleged interrogations by seniors and subsequent isolation identified as the immediate triggering factors.

He said the perceived child-parent conflict was not a direct factor in the alleged suicide but one of several predisposing or indirect factors, adding that the direct factor, in his opinion, was the stressful interrogations and isolation that night or morning.

Chua, who has been attached to Hospital Mesra Bukit Padang since 2022, was testifying before Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan on Thursday as the 67th deponent in the inquest proceedings.

During the proceedings, conducting officer Deputy Public Prosecutor Dacia Jane Romanus played an audio recording of an affectionate conversation between Zara and her mother, after which Chua said human relationships are complex and that child-parent conflicts are often episodic, personal and contextual rather than constant.