The mother of the late Dutch model Ivana Smit has filed a lawsuit against the police and the Malaysian government for allegedly failing to carry out their statutory duties and negligence in the investigation into her death.
Ivana was found dead at the CapSquare Residence in downtown Kuala Lumpur on Dec 7, 2017, after falling from a 20th-floor condo owned by American couple Alex Johnson and Luna Almazkyzy. She was 18.
The suit was filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday.
Ivana’s mother, Christina Verstappen, named the inspector-general of police (IGP), Dang Wangi police district investigating officer Faizal Abdullah, the home minister and the government as defendants, in a statement of claim sighted by FMT.
Her lawyer, SN Nair, confirmed that the writ of summons has been served on all defendants.
Verstappen said the defendants failed to carry out their statutory duties and were negligent in their investigation into the case.
She sought a declaration that police failed to carry out a fresh murder investigation as ordered by the High Court and were in contempt of a court order dated Nov 22, 2019, made by judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
She also sought a mandamus order for the IGP to remove Faizal from the investigating task force and form a new task force for a fresh investigation.
Verstappen also wanted the task force to report to the court on the status of the investigation at intervals to be determined.
She asked the court to order the IGP to update her and her lawyers on the progress and status of the reopened probe.
She also sought a mandamus order to demand the IGP to issue an arrest warrant for Johnson and Almazkyzy and have them extradited from the US to Malaysia to be investigated and possibly prosecuted.
Verstappen sought general, aggravated, exemplary damages and costs, on a solicitor and client basis, and other reliefs deemed fit by the court.
Verstappen and a young Ivana.
In her summons, she said it was “unbelievable” for police to conclude Ivana’s case as sudden death on the same day her body was found, saying it broke basic police investigation protocols.
She said police did not seal the condominium unit where Ivana was last seen, and also allowed Johnson and Almazkyzy to make a phone call from the police station while under detention, where they allegedly ordered a cleaner to tidy the unit before a forensic team could arrive.
She said the subsequent release of the couple was also questionable, and crucial evidence was not collected because of “numerous deliberate acts and omissions” by the police.
Verstappen said that when the case was brought to the federal police headquarters, it remained classified as sudden death “despite overwhelming evidence and obvious circumstances proving otherwise”.
She said police failed to secure the attendance of Johnson and Almazkyzy when an inquest was held into the circumstances surrounding Ivana’s death.
She also claimed that Faizal, based on his testimony at the inquest, was biased and favoured the Johnsons, and when the High Court reviewing the coroner’s findings ordered police to investigate the case as murder, Faizal was included in the investigating task force.
She alleged the task force had since “hibernated” with no updates given to her or the Dutch authorities since.
Verstappen said she only heard from the Dutch police and the country’s prosecution service that the Malaysian police had reached out to get copies of the post-mortem reports and other documents pertaining to the investigation last month, “when the documents were in the hands of the Malaysians since 2018”. – FMT