The administrator of the Facebook page “Sabahan News Online” has issued an apology and retracted a previous post that linked Sabah minister Arifin Arif to the death of Zara Qairina Mahathir.
In a public post on the page, the administrator admitted that Arifin, the state minister for science, technology and innovation, had been a “victim of misunderstanding all this while.” The page also apologized for attempting to link Sabah’s governor, Musa Aman, to the case through Arifin, who is Musa’s son-in-law.
“We wholeheartedly apologize and will make this post a point of reference for the public so that all parties would understand (that Arifin is not linked to the case in any way),” the statement read. “Every effort and attempt to link the governor and others to the case was a mistake and we deeply regret doing so.”
The administrator also expressed hope that the apology would help to alleviate the unhappiness of netizens who were critical of the page’s previous allegations.
The apology comes amid ongoing public scrutiny of the case. Zara, a 13-year-old, was found unconscious on July 16 after allegedly falling from the third floor of her school dormitory in Papar, Sabah. She passed away the following day at Queen Elizabeth I Hospital in Kota Kinabalu. Her body was exhumed on August 9 for a post-mortem examination amid widespread allegations of bullying.
This morning, five teenage girls pleaded not guilty at the Court for Children in Kota Kinabalu to charges of using abusive words against the victim, which could have caused her emotional distress.
