The family of Ivana Smit has filed a lawsuit against the Malaysian police for negligence in the probe into the Dutch model’s death three years ago.
The family’s counsel Sankara Nair today confirmed that the writ of summons was filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court and served on the four defendants today.
According to the cause papers, the plaintiff is Christina Carolina Gerarda Johanna Verstappen, who is the deceased’s mother.
The legal action named the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), lead investigating officer Faizal Abdullah, the Home Minister, and the Malaysian government, as defendants.
On Oct 31, online news portal Free Malaysia Today reported that Dutch model Ivana Smit’s family was planning to sue the Malaysian police for negligence in probing the case.
Smit’s nude body was discovered sprawled on the sixth-floor condo of CapSquare Residence in Kuala Lumpur, 14 floors below Alexander William Johnson and Lunara Almazkyzy’s 20th-floor condo, on Dec 7, 2017. She was 18.
In December that same year, the police had classified the case as sudden death.
On March 8 last year, the Kuala Lumpur coroner’s court had ruled her death as a misadventure.
However, in November last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court overturned the coroner’s finding, ruling that there was an insufficient investigation done on the possibility of death by homicide, but it may have been caused by "persons known or unknown" to the victim.
Following the High Court ruling, the police had announced that a new task force would be formed to reopen the investigation into the case.
According to a copy of the suit’s Statement of Claim, the family is seeking general, aggravated, and exemplary damages over negligence, gross negligence, misfeasance and/or nonfeasance.
They seek a declaration that the defendants had failed to carry out their duties per the High Court ruling on Nov 22, 2019, which overturned the ruling of misadventure.
The family is seeking a mandamus order for the IGP, Home Minister and/or the Malaysian government to issue a warrant of arrest and extradite Johnson and Almazkyzy to Malaysia for further questioning and possible prosecution.
It was reported that American tycoon Johnson and his wife Almazkyzy allegedly had a “threesome” with Smit at an apartment unit in Kuala Lumpur, just before the model’s death.
Through the present suit, the family is also seeking a mandamus order to compel the IGP to remove Faizal from the current task force and to reconstitute a new task force for the reopened probe into Smit’s death.
According to the online cause list, the legal action is set for e-review (online teleconference) case management by the Kuala Lumpur High Court Registry at 9am on Friday this week. - Mkini
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