(Kota Kinabalu, July 30) In a closely watched contempt of court case, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal has been found in contempt of court by the Kota Kinabalu Magistrates' Court and sentenced to five weeks in jail for statements made about the inquest into the death of teenage schoolgirl Zara Kaleyna Mahadi. The magistrate who delivered the ruling emphasised that the central problem was not whether anyone had been influenced by the remarks, but that the remarks had been made publicly at all while the inquest was still active.
The Ruling
The verdict was delivered by Magistrate Amir Shah Amir Hassan, who cited Section 99A of the Subordinate Courts Act 1948 and the accompanying provisions to convict the 68-year-old former Sabah Chief Minister and Semporna MP of contempt of court. Shafie was sentenced to five weeks in prison and fined the maximum under the statute. A stay of execution was granted, allowing the Warisan party chairman to appeal to the High Court before the sentence takes effect.
The Remarks
The case centred on a speech delivered by Shafie at a public event in Keningau on September 20, 2025, during which he described Zara Kaleyna's death as a murder, saying aloud "this child was killed", and questioned the integrity of the ongoing inquest with remarks such as "where is justice." The inquest into Zara's death was being heard by Magistrate Amir Shah at the time, and the court reviewed the complete video recording of the speech as part of the proceedings.
Key Findings in the Judgment
Magistrate Amir Shah's judgment addressed freedom of speech directly, finding that the remarks made outside court could not be protected on those grounds. He explained that the speech had effectively reached a conclusion — murder — on the very question the inquest existed to answer, doing so in public and before the court had completed its examination. This constituted a serious undermining of the integrity of the administration of justice. The magistrate specifically noted that the statement "this child was killed" prejudged the central issue of the inquest, while the questioning of the judicial process through remarks about justice had a negative effect on proceedings. He added that Shafie's failure to take any corrective action after the fact — allowing the content to remain in the public domain — aggravated the contempt. The court also rejected any suggestion that the coroner needed to be shown to have been influenced; the making of the remarks publicly during an active inquest was itself the conduct under scrutiny.
Background: The Zara Kaleyna Case
Zara Kaleyna Mahadi, 13, was found unconscious near a dormitory drain at a religious secondary school in Papar on July 16, 2025, and died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu on July 17. An inquest into her death opened on September 3, 2025, and is continuing, with its next hearing set for August 24, 2026.
Stay and Appeal
The five-week sentence was stayed pending appeal to the High Court. The prosecution was led by deputy public prosecutors Mustapha P Kunjan and Nadia Izha. Shafie was defended by lawyers Zakaria Abdul Jalil and Chan Keh Choon.