Legal expert says Oki should be tried in LA

Legal expert says Oki should be tried in LA

SEMARANG (JP): Noted legal expert Muladi says that, for practical reasons, Indonesia should send Harnoko Dewanto, alias Oki, back to Los Angeles to face the murder charges there.

The law professor and rector of the state-run Diponegoro University said yesterday that, by insisting that Oki be tried in Jakarta, Indonesia is putting the reputation of its legal system on the line.

"The authorities here will have difficulties proving their case if they bring Oki to trial on murder charges," Muladi, who is also a member of the National Commission on Human Rights, said.

If the Indonesian court ultimately failed to convict for some legal technical reason, the authorities would have to release Oki, even if they believed he was guilty. "Clearly, this is putting our reputation on the line," he said.

And by law a suspect cannot be tried twice on the same charge, he stated.

Rather than going through the difficult process of bringing Oki to trial, Indonesia should just let the United States do the job, Muladi said. "After all, whether he is tried in Indonesia or the United States, the maximum penalty is still the death."

He acknowledged however that the punishment, if Oki is found guilty, is likely to be stiffer in the United States, where penalties are regarded as deterrents, than it would be in Indonesia, where penalties are regarded more as a process of rehabilitation.

Muladi said that Indonesian law allows a local court to try one of its citizens for crimes committed abroad.

On the face of it, the absence of an extradition treaty between the two countries suggests that Oki be tried here.

But the law does not bar Indonesia from sending Oki to the United States to face the murder charges there, he said.

All the evidence for the case is in Los Angeles and the authorities there are in a better position to handle the case, he added. (har/emb)