Senior federal counsel Norfauzani Nordin told the court that investigating officer Faizal Abdullah needed to look into some matters before the investigation could be completed.
However, SN Nair, the lawyer for Smit’s family, claimed that the authorities had yet to respond to his request for an update on the progress of the investigation.
“To date, there’s no evidence or official confirmation of an ongoing investigation to the solicitors or the family.
“It’s quite unfortunate because we should have been informed,” he told the court.
Judicial commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain then asked Norfauzani why the defendants did not reply to the family’s request, to which the senior federal counsel said it was not up to them to reveal the progress of the investigation.
Roz Mawar: That is correct, but why was there no explanation that the investigation is ongoing and what stage it was at?
Norfauzani: Your honour, that is the only information we have (referring to the ongoing investigation).
Faizal is one of four defendants named in a negligence suit filed by Ivana’s mother, Christina Carolina Gerarda Johanna Verstappen, on Nov 20, 2020, after the police initially classified the model’s case as sudden death.
The other defendants are the inspector-general of police (IGP), the home ministry and Putrajaya.
The court has fixed Nov 4 for the hearing of the defendants’ application to strike out the suit.
Ivana, then 18, was found dead on the sixth floor of a condominium block in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 7, 2017, after falling from a 20th floor unit occupied by an American couple, Alex Johnson and Luna Almazkyzy.
Previously, Nair had written to (now caretaker) Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to urge him to remove Faizal from a task force investigating Smit’s death. The letter was copied to the attorney-general and the IGP.
The letter came after Ismail assured Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in June that there would be a transparent probe into the model’s death.
Bukit Aman established a new task force to investigate the death in November 2019 after it was reclassified as murder.