GEORGE TOWN: The family of the late Dutch model Ivana Smit is upset the Malaysian authorities have yet to update them on a fresh murder probe into her death mandated by the High Court almost a year ago.
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 Almaz. She was 18.
Police had then classified the case as sudden death, and a coroner ruled her death as a misadventure. The Kuala Lumpur High Court later ordered the attorney-general and police to investigate the case as murder, after setting aside the coroner’s decision.
Speaking to FMT, Ivana’s father, Marcel Smit, said the family had yet to hear from the prosecution or police since the court order made in November last year.
“I think we are back to square one. Ivana’s case appears to be buried and it looks like the Malaysians want us to forget. It has been over a year now,” he said in a phone interview.
He said since the court order was made before the Covid-19 outbreak, he presumed the investigation would have started.
The family, he said, had also assumed that police would order the extradition of the Johnsons from the US to assist in the investigation, and was upset the couple had not been called yet.
“We cannot imagine that police and the public prosecutor would not comply with a court order. The family is shattered by the fact that people who may be responsible for Ivana’s death are enjoying complete freedom, while we all have a life sentence of grief and sadness.”
Smit’s family lawyer, Sebas Diekstra, said it was “painful” to be in the dark for so long on the progress of the investigation. He said the Dutch public prosecutor, where the Smits had lodged a request to investigate, had also not provided them with any information.
On Nov 22 last year, High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, in setting aside the coroner’s verdict of misadventure, said Ivana’s death was caused by “persons known or unknown”.
He made the ruling after taking into account the testimony of Dutch pathologist Dr Frank van der Goot at an earlier inquest that Johnson and Almaz might have engaged in a struggle with Ivana before her death.
Reports had said the couple had since relocated to Florida, where they maintained their innocence in a series of interviews with Dutch newspaper AD.nl, claiming Ivana must have climbed over a balcony and under the influence of alcohol and drugs fallen to her death.
Police had also said after the court order last year that they would reopen the case as murder under the Penal Code. FMT has contacted the IGP for an update. - FMT
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