Five teenagers were charged on Wednesday with bullying Malaysian schoolgirl Zara Qairina Mahathir, whose death has seen an outpouring of grief across the nation and triggered a movement against a pernicious bullying culture in the education system.
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Zara, 13, died in hospital on July 17, a day after she was found unconscious on the ground outside her dormitory at an Islamic boarding school in Papar, a district in the Malaysian Borneo state of Sabah.
The suspects were charged with “making threatening or insulting communications” towards the victim, an offence that carries a penalty of up to one year in prison, a fine or both. All five pleaded not guilty when the charges were read before Judge Elsie Primus.
As all the suspects are under 18 and considered minors under Malaysian law, the Juvenile Court in Kota Kinabalu has imposed a gag order on lawyers involved in the case to protect the teenagers’ identity. The judge allowed the suspects to be released on 5,000 ringgit (US$1,180) bail.
Sabah police have been criticised for quickly concluding there was no foul play involved in initial investigations into Zara’s death and closing the case without ordering a postmortem to allow for her swift burial.
Persistent rumours of a cover-up linked to powerful families – which sparked mass protests across the country – prompted Attorney General Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar to order an exhumation of Zara’s body and a fresh investigation by the police.
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