THE Kuala lumpur High Court today rejected the government’s application to postpone the payment of RM1.1 million in damages awarded to the mother of the late Dutch model, Ivana Esther Robert Smit, whose death eight years ago was found to have been mishandled by police investigators.
Justice Roz Mawar Rozain ordered the government to deposit the compensation, along with accrued interest, into a trust account by the end of the day, and to pay an additional RM8,000 in legal costs. The government had sought a stay of execution pending its appeal to the Court of Appeal.
The civil suit was filed by Christina Carolina Gerarda Johanna Verstappen, who accused the authorities of negligence and breach of statutory duty in investigating her daughter’s death in 2017.
Named as defendants were the Inspector-General of Police, Dang Wangi Investigating Officer Assistant Commissioner Faizal Abdullah, the Home Minister, and the Government of Malaysia.
In her earlier ruling on 29 July, Justice Roz Mawar found the defendants liable for breaching their duty of care, citing failures in crime scene management, evidence preservation, and forensic procedures. She ruled that the authorities’ conduct amounted to institutional negligence in handling the case.
Verstappen’s daughter, Ivana Smit, 18, was found dead on the sixth floor of a Kuala Lumpur condominium after falling from the 20th-floor unit of an American couple, Alex Johnson and Luna Almazkyzy, on 7 December 2017.
The High Court had previously overturned a coroner’s finding that classified the death as a “misadventure.”
Justice Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, in 2019, ruled instead that Smit’s death was “caused by person or persons known or unknown,” and directed the Attorney General to instruct police to reopen the investigation.
Despite the court’s directive, Verstappen’s counsel, Datuk SN Nair, said there had been no meaningful reinvestigation.
“The court has issued a landmark ruling finding serious institutional failure and negligence by the police,” he said. “It is now apparent that the order to reopen the investigation has been ignored.
Such blatant non-compliance not only constitutes contempt of court but also undermines the rule of law and public confidence in law enforcement.”
The court had instructed the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) to restart the investigation and to submit quarterly progress reports to the Attorney General’s Chambers.
Verstappen, in her statement of claim, said police had initially opened an inquiry under a sudden death report before closing the case, concluding it was accidental or a suicide — a finding she said was “impossible to accept.”
“She described the investigation as a “clear breach of standard operating procedures and accepted policing practices.” November 13, 2025
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