The government said there was also no breach of any statutory duty during the entire investigation.
Ivana’s mother Christina Verstappen filed a suit in November against the police for allegedly having failed to carry out their statutory duties and being negligent in the investigation into her daughter’s death.
Ivana, 18, was found dead at the CapSquare Residence in downtown Kuala Lumpur on Dec 7, 2017.
She had earlier been at a unit occupied by American couple Alex Johnson and Luna Almazkyzy.
The inspector-general of police (IGP), Dang Wangi police district investigating officer Faizal Abdullah, the home minister and the government are named as defendants.
Coroner Mahyon Talib in her verdict in early 2019 found Ivana’s death to be a misadventure.
However, following a review application, High Court Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah set aside the findings and ruled the model’s death was caused by “persons known or unknown”.
“The coroner’s decision is now set aside. I direct the attorney-general’s chambers to instruct the police to investigate the cause of her death,” the judge ruled in November 2019.
The government, in its defence filed last month, said Faizal had instructed the condominium security guard to prevent anyone from entering Unit 20-5, the crime scene.
“The post-mortem report suggested that Ivana’s death was consistent with a fall from height,” it said, adding that Johnson and Almazkyzy were arrested and placed under remand for four days from Dec 8, 2017.
The government said Faizal had seized and analysed the data in Johnson and Almazkyzy’s mobile phones but nothing incriminating was found.
Further, it said the couple’s passports were seized by police and were only returned to them after the withdrawal of their drug charges in January 2018.
The government said that after Sequerah’s ruling, the police classified the case as murder and appointed six medical experts to assist in the re-investigation.
“The defendants have performed their duty as instructed by the High Court. It also took steps to obtain several documents from (Dutch police attache) Gerard Van Heerwardee and the post-mortem report and other relevant documents from Dr Frank Van Der Groof,” it said.
The government said police also applied to Interpol to track Johnson and Almazkyzy.
Verstappen, represented by S N Nair and Elyse Ng, is also seeking a mandamus order for the IGP to form a new task force for a fresh investigation.
She wants the task force to report to the court on the status of investigation at intervals to be determined.
She is also seeking a mandamus order to demand that the IGP issue an arrest warrant for Johnson and Almazkyzy and have them extradited from the US to Malaysia to be investigated and possibly prosecuted.
A case management will be held on March 4 before senior registrar Maslinda Selamat.