KUALA LUMPUR: The police have been instructed by the High Court to recommence their investigation into the death of Dutch model Ivana Smit, who died from a fall at a condominium eight years ago.

Justice Roz Mawar Rozain issued the mandamus order to compel the police to reopen the case after finding it liable for failures found throughout the investigation.

She also ordered the Inspector-General of Police, the first defendant, to remove investigating officer Asst Supt Faizal Abdullah from the current task force.

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“The police are directed to brief the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) every three months from the date of this judgment on the updates of the investigation.

“The AGC is to deliver on the sufficiency of evidence and the next step forward,” she said in her decision on Tuesday (July 29).

Justice Roz Mawar found all four defendants – the IGP, ASP Faizal, the Home Minister and the government – liable, albeit to varying degrees, in a civil action filed in 2020 by Smit's mother, Christina Carolina Gerarda Johanna Verstappen.

She filed the lawsuit over what she claimed to be a mishandling of the investigation into her daughter's death by the defendants.

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The 18-year-old Smit was found dead on the sixth floor of CapSquare Residence here on Dec 7, 2017.

In her decision, Justice Roz Mawar awarded RM1.1mil to Verstappen as the plaintiff for general, aggravated and exemplary damages.

The court also found there was a non-compliance by the defendants with a High Court order dated November 2019, relating to the case.

“The 2019 High Court order is clear and unambiguous. It directed this case to be reclassified as death by person or persons unknown and compelled the AGC to direct the police to recommence its investigation as a murder case.

“Despite this clear judicial directive, evidence shows that the defendants failed to comply meaningfully with the 2019 High Court order,” she said.

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The court also noted that there was a conflict of interest when the police retained the same investigating officer in a special task force that was formed following the 2019 High Court order.

The court found that ASP Faizal had arbitrarily classified the incident as suicide on the same day when the investigation had begun as a suspected homicide.

“The same compromised investigating officer was retained. Ineffective measures were taken. Although the case was split and continued, the defendants failed to offer any evidence to substantiate continuing investigative methods.

“The investigation has effectively stagnated with no significant progress since 2019. So, the failure to comply with a clear judicial directive constitutes further breaches of statutory duty. It may also lead to contempt of court,” she added.

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The judge said that while the case represented a significant failure in the discharge of investigative duties by law enforcement, the findings in the case should not be interpreted as a criticism of the police force.

She said the evidence before the court showed there were multiple departures from accepted standards in the investigation, which resulted in a denial of justice to the plaintiff, and this finding should be treated as an identification of the elements that needed correction.

In November 2019, the High Court overturned a coroner's ruling that found Smit's death was due to “misadventure”.

Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah (now a Court of Appeal judge) had then allowed an application by Smit's family to review the coroner's ruling in March the same year.

In his findings, Justice Sequerah said Smit's death was caused by “persons known or unknown” and that there was insufficient investigation done on the possibility of death by homicide.

He directed the AGC to instruct the police to investigate Smit's death.