Cops accused of bungling an investigation into the death of a Dutch teenage model when she fell from a flat owned by an American couple will have to face a court probe after the High Court in Kuala Lumpur threw out a bid to stop it.
The Malaysian government and police had moved to dismiss the bid to force an investigation in a suit brought by the family of the Dutch teenage model whose lifeless body was found naked on a balcony several floors down from where she fell.
Model Ivana Esther Robert Smit, 18, died after she fell from the 20th floor of a high rise in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, falling 14 floors before she landed on the sixth floor in December 2017.
The High Court has now dismissed the request by the Malaysian authorities to throw out the lawsuit filed by her mother against the police, which alleges that they were negligent during their investigation.
The plaintiff, named in Malaysian media as Christina Carolina Gerarda Johanna Verstappen, 57, had filed the lawsuit against the Inspector-General of Police, Dang Wangi, investigating officer ASP Faizal Abdullah, the Home Minister and the Malaysian government in November 2020.
She claims that they breached statutory duties and were negligent while carrying out their investigation into the cause of her daughter’s death.
Judicial Commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain said, upon delivering the ruling, said that it would not be right to dismiss the case because there are serious questions that need to be addressed with a full hearing.
She said: “This is not a plain and obvious case to be struck out. The defendants’ claim that they have immunity under the Police Act 1967 is also a serious question of law which should go into a trial.”
Roz Mawar also said that the case could not be determined in a summary manner and it was not clear that the plaintiff’s claim was unsustainable.
She added: “After studying the plea, this court concludes that there is a reasonable cause of action against the defendants.
“The plaintiff’s suit is not scandalous, vexatious or an abuse of the court process. Therefore, the court dismisses the application with a cost of RM 5,000 [GBP 925].”
Verstappen’s lawsuit had at first been struck down in April 2021 before being reinstated by a Court of Appeal.
Verstappen claims in her suit that her 18-year-old daughter Ivana had been found dead on the sixth floor of CapSquare Residence on Dec 7, 2017, after falling from the 20th floor of a condominium unit owned by American couple Alex Johnson and Luna Almazkyzy, according to local media.
The grieving mother reportedly alleges that the police had acted negligently by failing to cordon off the crime scene and by failing to conduct a proper investigation into the American couple.
The lawsuit also alleges that the police failed to detain the couple or secure their extradition and that they also failed to ensure that they would be present as key witnesses during an inquest.
The Malaysian Coroner’s Court ruled in 2019 that Ivana’s death had been caused by a “misadventure”.
Rejecting the coroner’s findings, her mother then appealed to the Kuala Lumpur High Court, leading to the coroner’s ruling being replaced with a ruling of “death by personal persons unknown”, with the Royal Malaysian Police instructed to investigate further.
The next court date has been set for Wednesday, 14th December.
