Gina family wants Oki tried in U.S.

Gina family wants Oki tried in U.S.

By K. Basrie

JAKARTA (JP): The family of the late Gina Sutan Aswar urged the police to hand Harnoko Dewantono, alias Oki, over to the United States to face the charge that he murdered their daughter.

"The entire family here demands that he be questioned and tried in the United States, because that is the where the crime alleged took place -- in Los Angeles," a member of the family, who requested anonymity, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

"We can't understand why the authorities here are refusing to send the suspect back to the United States," she said, and added: "How could they decide to try him in an Indonesian court if the crime alleged occurred in Los Angeles."

The Los Angeles police already know the details of the case and for this, and other practical reasons, it would be easier if the defendant were tried there, she said.

Jakarta Police Chief Maj. Gen. Mochammad Hindarto has said that he has no plans to send Oki, who is wanted by the Los Angeles Police Department in connection with Gina's murder, to the United States, because the two countries have no extradition treaty.

Hindarto has insisted that if Oki should be tried for the alleged murder, he will have to be tried in Indonesia.

Oki, 30 years old, is currently being held by Jakarta police on charges relating to the forgery of a passport. He was arrested at his grandparents' house in Jakarta last Saturday.

The Los Angeles Police Department has issued a warrant for the arrest of Oki whom they say is the main suspect in their investigation of the murder of Gina, Oki's own brother Eri Tri Harto Darmawan, and Surish Michandani, a Los Angeles laundry businessman of Indian origins. Their decomposed bodies were found in a storage locker in Los Angeles last August. Police only managed to identify the bodies in December.

Although Oki was being investigated in connection with the passport forgery allegations, Oki had told his interrogators that he had had no part in the Los Angeles triple murder, police sources said.

The Attorney General's Office has confirmed that the criminal code permits an Indonesian court to prosecute its own citizens for crimes committed in other countries.

If police chose to proceed under that provision then Oki would be tried in the Central Jakarta Court, the Attorney General's acting spokesman Chairul said.

Tisnaya I. Kartakusuma, a close relative of Gina who has also been appointed by the family as their lawyer, reiterated the call to have Oki extradited to the United States.

"It might be inefficient for him to be investigated here," Tisnaya said, because the evidence, witnesses and detectives who initially investigated the case are all in the United States.

Legal experts here believe that if Oki were tried and found guilty in a U.S. court, he would almost certainly receive the death penalty. If he were to be found guilt in Indonesia he could still get the death penalty, but would more likely receive life imprisonment or 20 years imprisonment.

Gina and Oki attended the same high school in Jakarta. They met again in 1992 when Gina traveled to Los Angeles. The two became business partners there after Gina invested some money which she had raised from relatives and friends.

Gina was reported missing in November 1992 and her family employed American detectives to search for her. They learned of her death when Los Angeles police announced in December the identity of the three bodies found in the storage locker.

Gina was the youngest of five children of Sutan Aswar, a retired Air Force colonel and a former member of the House of Representatives.

Yesterday, Gina's family said that her remains would arrive at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport today on board a Garuda Indonesia flight from Los Angeles.

Her body would initially be brought to the family's home in Polonia, East Jakarta. Gina would be buried at the Kemang Purut cemetery in South Jakarta after the Friday prayer, spokesman Tisnaya said.

Messages of condolence and sympathy have, meanwhile, been pouring into the family home. Flowers have also been sent to the family, including two bouquets from Gina's former employers Arco, an American oil company, and Bank Internasional Indonesia.

Recent visitors to the Polonia house include senior police and air force officers and noted artists.