Lawyers' withdrawal from Oki's case seen premature
Lawyers' withdrawal from Oki's case seen premature
JAKARTA (JP): The battle between lawyers, from two different offices, to defend Harnoko Dewantono, alias Oki, the main suspect in a Los Angeles triple murder and passport forgery, has not ended yet.
An executive from the Ruhut Sitompoel, Tommy Sihotang & Associates law office strongly protested yesterday the withdrawal of Amir Syamsuddin and his partners, of the Amir Syamsuddin & Partners office, from Oki's defense.
"Amir's not a gentleman!" Tommy Sihotang said, referring to Amir's announcement on Saturday to withdraw from Oki's cases.
According to Tommy, Amir should wait until Oki's first trial, for his alleged role in falsifying passports, which gets underway at the South Jakarta district court tomorrow.
"He should come to court, where Oki will finally and officially appoint the lawyer he wants," Tommy said. "Even we still do not know who Oki will choose to defend him," Tommy said.
Amir's sudden withdrawal, he said, has further bolstered their confidence to defend the suspect, "but it really distracts from all the processing and work we have done."
According to Tommy, the existence of Amir and his colleagues has, for example, blockaded his and his partners way to get access to meet with the client.
"He was, for instance, given many opportunities by the police, the prosecutor's office and officers at the Cipinang penitentiary to meet Oki, while we had to follow all the complicated and arduous procedures before meeting with him," he complained.
Tommy said his office has yet to know the strategy set by Amir and his colleagues, following his unexpected withdrawal. "It's not an ethical attitude for a senior lawyer like him to withdraw, except when the client asks him to do so," he said.
When Amir was asked to comment yesterday, he simply said, "They can say anything they want but let the truth tell the truth."
On Saturday, Amir insisted that he and his colleagues were no longer defending Oki, since Friday, due to a number of circumstances, such as the unfavorable attitude shown by Oki's father, Hendarno Hendarmin, a former banker, who sponsored the appointment of lawyers from Tommy's office to defend his son.
"We have withdrawn as Oki's lawyers from both the case of passport forgery and the murder," Amir told reporters again yesterday. "In the three months of service as Oki's lawyers we have been faced with a lot of problems. One particular problem came from Oki's father, who was not pleased with our role."
According to one of Amir's staff, Hironimus Dani, Oki told him that he will try to do his best to appoint lawyers from Amir's office to defend him in the murder trial.
"No way," Amir insisted, "I'll come, in a personal capacity as an advisor, if Oki needs me because we have gotten close to each other and I consider him as my other son," he said.
When informed by Dani, at the Cipinang penitentiary in East Jakarta on Friday about the withdrawal, Oki gave no comment.
"Well, everything has been done and I cannot change it again," Oki said.
Oki, 30, is wanted by the Los Angeles police for his alleged role in the killing of his brother, an Indonesian woman and an Indian businessman.
He is strongly believed to have tortured and shot the Indian businessman, Suresh Mirchandani, to death in August 1991. Then he battered to death Gina Sutan Aswar and Tri (Eri) Harto Darmawan, his younger brother, in November 1992.
After being hidden in separate places, the bodies of the three victims were kept together in a storage locker since May 1993, before being found by the Los Angeles police in August last year.
Oki was apprehended in Indonesia early this year for alleged passport forgery and was later questioned about the murders.
The dossiers on Oki's alleged role in falsifying passports will be tried at the South Jakarta district court tomorrow.
Tomorrow's trial is expected to attract a large number of spectators and members of the press because it will the first time that Oki is seen in public since his arrest three months ago.
Meanwhile, the murder dossiers have yet to be completed because Indonesian police say they are still waiting for additional information on new evidence, found early last week by Los Angeles police detectives.
Two city detectives have flown to Los Angeles to find out the details.
A lack of material evidence, as required by Indonesian law, is also hindering the case because some key evidence is still being held by the Los Angeles police. (bsr)