Malaysia asks Interpol to find American couple tied to Dutch model Ivana Smit’s death
The Malaysian police have issued a blue notice to Interpol, asking the policing service for the whereabouts of an American couple regarding the death of Dutch model Ilana Smit in Kuala Lumpur on 7 December 2017.
The notice was issued last week against cryptocurrency millionaire Alex Johnson (51) and his wife, Lunara Almazkyzy (37), who were previously linked to the 18-year-old Dutch woman’s death, the senior federal counsel Nuur Zul Izzati Zukipli told Malay Mail. A blue notice is a request to Interpol for information about a person’s identity, location, or activities.
Smit died after going back to the American couple’s apartment on the 20th floor of a skyscraper in the Malaysian capital after a night out. She was found dead on a 6th-floor balcony after apparently falling from the couple’s 20th-floor residence.
Initially, two pathologists in Malaysia ruled that the young Dutch woman died in an accidental fall. However, after an independent autopsy performed by an expert in the Netherlands identified injuries unrelated to the fall, one local pathologist retracted their statement and the other said they had not immediately examined Smit’s body. It also emerged that police did not seal off the apartment, and allowed the Johnsons to bring someone in to clean their apartment.
In 2019, a Malaysian court ruled that Smit may have been killed in a crime, and ordered a murder investigation to be launched. But the case has ground to a halt in the years since.
Last week, Sébas Diekstra, the lawyer representing Ilana’s family, said that the family would continue a lawsuit they had filed against the Malaysian government. The lawsuit is aimed at forcing the investigation to take place as the Malaysian government "failed to fulfill its legal duties," Diekstra said. An attempt to reach an out-of-court settlement with the Malaysian police and the government through mediation was unsuccessful.
