Azhari Abd Sagap, the eighth witness in the inquest into Zara’s death, said he and the school had faced condemnation despite doing all that they could to save the teenager when she was found unconscious on July 16.

He said this included accompanying Zara’s mother at the hospital, attending the Form 1 student’s funeral and fully cooperating with the police, Harian Metro reported.

“I never tried to protect Zara’s bullies or her killer (if she was murdered). If I wanted to protect the bullies, I wouldn’t have told the cops what happened on July 15,” he told the Kota Kinabalu coroner’s court.

“I complied with everything the cops asked for, and brought whoever they wanted to question to the Papar police headquarters,” he added during cross-examination by lawyer Abdul Fikry Jaafar Abdullah, representing one of Zara’s alleged bullies.

Zara died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on July 17 and was buried at the Tanjung Ubi Muslim cemetery in Sipitang the same day.

On Aug 8, the Attorney-General’s Chambers ordered the exhumation of her remains for a post-mortem, before announcing an inquest into her death on Aug 13.

The inquest continues before coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan.