GEORGE TOWN: The lawyer for Ivana Smit’s family has written to the prime minister asking him to remove a police officer from a task force probing the Dutch teen model’s death five years ago.
Lawyer SN Nair said the officer, Faizal Abdullah, was the investigating officer in Smit’s case when she was found dead on the ground of a balcony in Kuala Lumpur in 2017.
Nair said Faizal had wrongly concluded that Ivana had died due to natural causes or suicide without a proper probe, despite there being evidence to the contrary, made clear in an inquest and later by the High Court. The High Court then ruled that Ivana’s death was due to a “person or persons unknown”.
Nair’s letter to the prime minister comes after Ismail Sabri Yaakob assured Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte that a fair and transparent probe into her death would be held. Rutte had spoken to Ismail over the phone about the Ivana case, aside from other matters.
In the letter handed over to Ismail’s office today, Nair said Faizal was in a clear position of conflict of interest and his inclusion in the task force would deny the “transparent, free and just” probe promised to Rutte and the Smit family.
“It is important for the task force to be appointed from amongst the members who are independent and who do not have any interest in the investigations,” he said.
“We truly believe that the appointment of Faizal in the task force is indefensible and runs contrary to YAB Dato’ Sri’s assurance on transparency and fairness in the investigation of this case,” he added.
Nair said the task force had also been formed in a shroud of secrecy, with no clear details of who the members were, barring that Faizal was part of the team.
He said Faizal’s inclusion in the task force was made known when the latter had asked for copies of Ivana’s post-mortem report from the Dutch authorities at the behest of the task force.
“No official notification has been given to the family or us by the task force to date. Representatives from the Netherlands embassy and the police attache had offered their support and assistance, but were turned down,” he said.
Nair said the Smit family was also disappointed that the task force had not obeyed the High Court’s direction to the police to start reinvestigating the case, despite a court order.
Ivana, then 18, was found dead on the sixth floor of a condominium block in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 7, 2017, purportedly falling from a 20th floor unit occupied by an American couple, Alex Johnson and Luna Almazkyzy.
Police had initially classified the case as sudden death. A coroner later ruled that there was no criminal element in the case, deciding that Ivana had died due to a misadventure.
The High Court, however, quashed the coroner’s findings, saying Ivana’s death was caused by “person or persons unknown” and there was a lack of investigation on the possibility of homicide. - FMT
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