Oki admits to murdering his younger brother
JAKARTA (JP): The sole defendant in the Los Angeles triple murder case admitted yesterday to having killed one person; his younger brother, Ery Tri Harto Dharmawan.
Harnoko Dewantono, better known as Oki, told the Central Jakarta District Court yesterday Ery had killed the two other people, an Indian and an Indonesian woman.
"I did kill Ery, my younger brother, but I did not kill Suresh Gobind Mirchandani or Gina Sutan Aswar as I am charged with," Oki said.
Oki, who is defended by Tommy Sihotang, Nurhasyim Illyas and Henry Yosodiningrat told the presiding Judge I.G.K Sukarata that he withdrew his earlier statements to police.
"I confessed to the police interrogators during the questioning on Feb. 4, 1995 because I was mentally down after knowing that my parents were down," he said when asked to explain his retraction.
According to the indictment, Oki, 32, murdered his Indian national business partner Suresh G. Mirchandani on Aug. 19, 1991; his Indonesian woman friend Gina Sutan Aswar on Nov. 2, 1992 and his younger brother Ery Tri Harto Darmawan about two weeks after Gina. They were all slain in Los Angeles, U.S., state prosecutor J. Kamaru said.
The prosecutor said all three bodies had been first stored at Oaks Self Storage on Van Nuys Boullevardand and later moved to U- Haul locker number 109 in North Ridge. The bodies were found on Aug. 10, 1994, the prosecutor said.
If found guilty, Oki could face at least 20 years imprisonment for premeditated murder, the prosecutor said.
About 25 people attended the court hearing, which started about 11:00 a.m., an hour behind schedule.
Atitie Sutan Aswar, Gina's eldest sister, attended the session.
Oki told the court he was mentally unfit for yesterday's session, saying Ery's murder was haunting him. But the judges proceeded with the session. It was halted for 10 minutes at the defense lawyers' request, on the grounds that Oki was mentally unstable, before it proceeding again.
During the session, Alboim, the deputy judge appeared upset with Oki's retraction of his statements in the dossier.
"Please be honest for the sake of justice," the judge said.
In a previous session, a forensic expert told the court that the time element complicated the triple murder charges. Two-year- old corpses, Abdul Mun'im said, presented great difficulties for those trying to determine the exact cause and time of death.
Detectives and ballistic experts were also called to testify at the court hearings last year.
The defense lawyers have said the dossier on Oki is unclear and incomplete.
The trial was adjourned until Feb. 25. (11)