Fred Agenjo Weinhold said the family was content with the High Court’s ruling that the government and police were negligent in probing her death.
Although Putrajaya was ordered to pay RM1.1 million in damages to the family, Weinhold said the money was not the priority.
“It is far more important that we received recognition from Malaysia that we are not crazy for saying what we were saying for almost eight years.
“We won’t get Ivana back, but at least we have the satisfaction that a new investigation was ordered and the monsters responsible cannot rest easy,” he said in a statement.
Smit, who was 18, was found dead on the sixth floor of CapSquare Residence on Dec 7, 2017, after falling from a unit on the 20th floor.
An inquest in 2018 determined that her death was a “misadventure”. Upon revision by the High Court, the court ruled that Smit’s death was caused by “persons known or unknown”.
Earlier today, Justice Roz Mawar Rozain said investigating officer Faizal Abdullah had arbitrarily classified Smit’s death as suicide despite the presence of circumstantial evidence suggesting the possibility of homicide.
The judge said Faizal also admitted that no action was taken to arrest Alex Johnson and his wife Luna Almaz despite a forensic report stating that Johnson’s DNA was found under Smit’s nails.
Johnson and Lumaz were subpoenaed for the inquest but did not turn up to testify. They were believed to be in the US.
Roz Mawar said fresh investigations ordered by the court in 2019 had been stagnant since that year. She also ordered the cops to provide updates on their probe to the public prosecutor on a quarterly basis.
The family’s lawyer, Sébas Diekstra, said the court’s decision acknowledged that Smit’s death was not investigated seriously or honestly, adding that the Malaysian authorities had fundamentally failed her.
“For the family, this marks a long-awaited recognition. It is not justice in the full sense – Ivana will not return – but it is accountability.
“And it sends a clear message: those who abandon their duty to seek the truth cannot be allowed to walk away from it,” he said in a separate statement.