The Court of Appeal has granted the government a stay of execution pending its appeal against a High Court order requiring it to pay RM1.1 million in damages to the mother of Dutch model Ivana Smit over police negligence in probing her 2017 death.

The panel chaired by judge Zaini Mazlan unanimously allowed the stay after finding that special circumstances existed for a payment postponement and that Smit’s mother, Christina Carolina Gerarda Johanna Verstappen, would not be prejudiced.

Zaini said the High Court had directed that the damages be paid immediately into the respondents’ solicitors’ stakeholders account.

“However, the appellant has explained that as a government agency, the payment processes were not straightforward, and requiring immediate payment may give rise to practical difficulties.

“We note that there is no real risk of non-payment (because) if the appeal fails, the government would be able to satisfy the judgment,” he added.

The judge said preserving the status quo would not prejudice Verstappen as the sum was “not monetary gains”, and that refusing a stay could result in consequences that “cannot be undone”.

“For these reasons we allow the application and we make no order as to costs,” he said when reading the decision after hearing submissions from Senior Federal Counsel Liew Horng Bin and Verstappen’s lawyer Sankara Nair.

Presiding together with Zaini were judges Ismail Ibrahim and Lim Hock Leng.

The government filed its stay application on Nov 14 with a certificate of urgency after High Court judge Roz Mawar Rozain dismissed its bid earlier the same day.

With today’s decision, the Court of Appeal stayed Roz’s July 29 ruling directing the government to pay RM500,000 in general damages and RM600,000 in aggravated and exemplary damages to Verstappen.

The High Court also enforced a 2019 ruling ordering police to resume investigations into Smit’s death and directing the inspector-general of police to remove investigating officer Faizal Abdullah from the task force.

Roz had also ordered the government to pay RM100,000 in costs and a five percent annual interest on the damages from the date of judgment until full settlement.

Lack of updates

Earlier, Sankara told the panel that Verstappen had been kept in the dark over the probe into Smit’s death despite sending multiple letters seeking updates.

“(There was) nothing. Total silence,” he said, adding that he wrote again on Nov 3 but received no reply.

He said it was “contumacious” for authorities to remain silent and argued that the government asking for a stay was “totally absurd”.

On Dec 7, 2017, Smit’s body was discovered on the balcony of a sixth-floor unit of CapSquare Residence in Kuala Lumpur, 14 floors below the 20th-floor unit of suspects Alex Johnson and his wife, Luna Almaz.

On March 8, 2019, the Kuala Lumpur Coroner’s Court ruled the model’s death a misadventure, a decision which the Kuala Lumpur High Court overturned in November of the same year.

The government filed a notice of appeal in August this year seeking to overturn the High Court’s verdict.

Separately, Verstappen filed a civil action in 2020 alleging that the police, the home minister, the Dang Wangi investigating officer and the government breached their statutory duties and were negligent in investigating her 18-year-old daughter’s death.