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High Court orders police to reopen investigation into Dutch model Ivana Smit's death

High Court orders police to reopen investigation into Dutch model Ivana Smit's death

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has ordered the police to recommence the investigation into the death of Dutch model Ivana Esther Robert Smit, who was found dead after falling from the 20th floor of a condominium here in 2017.
Judge Roz Mawar Rozain also ordered the police to brief the Attorney-General's Chambers (A-GC) every three months on the progress of the investigation.
The A-GC will determine the sufficiency of the evidence and the next course of action.
Roz Mawar said this in her judgment after awarding Smit's mother RM1.1 million in damages in her suit against the Inspector-General of Police, the investigating officer and the government today.
She said police had been negligent in their investigation and had failed to comply with a 2019 High Court order to properly reinvestigate the case.
In 2019, then High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah had directed the A-GC to order the police to investigate the cause of Ivana's death, after setting aside the inquest verdict that classified her death as a 'misadventure' and reclassifying it as death caused by a person or persons known or unknown.
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