PETALING JAYA: The American-Kazakh couple who hosted Ivana Smit two years ago, on the day the Dutch model fell 14 floors and was found dead, intend to take legal action against her family for accusing them of causing her death.
Cryptocurrency trader Alex Johnson and Luna Almaz, who were the last persons to see Smit alive, told Dutch news portal AD.nl: “We are innocent, but have been under fire for a year and a half due to a smear campaign. Enough is enough.”
The couple, who are now based in Miami in the US, said there is no proof for the Smit family’s constant accusations that they were implicated in Smit’s untimely death.
In their first interview since they went underground 18 months ago following the international attention Smit’s death received, the couple said they would take the Smit family to court for defaming them unless they stop.
“The Smit family suffered an unimaginable loss with the death of Ivana. Proceedings against them are the last thing we want, but what choice do we have but to go to court if this continues? They want the whole world to attack us,” the couple said.
The Johnsons hosted Smit, then 18, at their 20th-floor unit at Capsquare Residence, off Jalan Dang Wangi, in Kuala Lumpur, on Dec 7, 2017.
Smit was found sprawled in the nude later that day on a 6th-floor balcony. She was pronounced dead.
The duo claimed to have had sex with Smit prior to her death but have maintained their innocence, saying the model died due to her own “youthful recklessness”.
The police first classified the case as sudden death, but it was reopened last year after pressure from Smit’s family, who claim there were elements of foul play.
The Kuala Lumpur Coroner’s Court this year ruled Smit’s death as a misadventure, which implies that the Dutch model died in an accident due to voluntary risk.
Coroner Mahyon Talib, in her written judgment, said no one was involved in Smit’s death.
The couple have already reportedly pressed charges in Miami against a Dutch commercial TV channel programme maker, Thjis Zeeman, and his team after they confronted and filmed Almaz in Miami.
AD.nl quoted Almaz as saying she was secretly filmed in her apartment. “Now everyone knows where we live. We receive hate mail and death threats on a daily basis,” she said.
The Johnsons have also launched legal proceedings against a British private investigator that the Smit family hired to look into her death. Mark Williams-Thomas had said Smit’s death should have been handled as a murder.
Johnson and Almaz claimed Williams-Thomas “falsified evidence and pressured people” to give him the statements he wanted to hear so that he could allegedly use it for a TV documentary.
The AD.nl report quoted Smit’s uncle, Fred Agenjo Weinhold, as saying he was not intimidated by the Johnsons’ threat to sue.
“There is no conceivable scenario for us as a family to be silenced. This will only fuel our determination more,” he said.
The daily also said Williams-Thomas refused to respond when asked for comments while Zeeman said he was not aware of the charges the Johnsons had levelled against him.
Separately, the UK’s Daily Mail quoted the couple as saying that they had nothing to do with the death, adding that the duo had left behind their “party lifestyle” after a “witch hunt” that saw them questioned by the police in Malaysia.
They also denied drugging the Dutch model on the day that she died, or that they took drugs themselves.
There were traces of cocaine, cannabis, alcohol, polymethylmethacrylate, among others, in Smit’s system, the combined effect of which could have knocked her out, the inquest into her death heard.
Johnson added: “We had nothing to do with her passing. Ivana was our friend and we both had relationships with her. She came with us willingly that night.
“I wish I had more time to know her. I lost a friend,” he said.
“We have enjoyed the company of other women over the course of our marriage.
“I honestly don’t give a s*** what anybody thinks any more. We are numb to it… We have had a year and a half of this. We have lost everything and started over again. I don’t care any more.”
Johnson and Almaz claimed to have had occasional sexual intercourse with Smit in their 20th-floor condo unit. Almaz also said she had sex with Smit on the morning of her death. This was referred to in court as well.
The Johnsons said they travelled through Asia after leaving Malaysia shortly after Smit’s death in 2017 and finally ended up in Miami.
The couple were detained in a police cell and later at the Sungai Buloh prison. They were later released and cleared in the case. Three months later, they decided to leave Malaysia.
Smit’s family has since applied for a revision of the judgement in the inquest.
The coroner in Smit’s inquest had ruled that the bruises on Smit’s arms and the back of her neck, the presence of broken glass bottles in the 20th-floor unit, and the DNA of Johnson found under Smit’s fingernails, suggested the possibility of foul play.
Mahyon had said she was of the opinion that Smit died between 6.50am and 2pm on Dec 7, 2017, and that her injuries were consistent with a fall from a height.- FMT
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