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.