Oki admitted to killing his brother: Father

JAKARTA (JP): The father of triple murder suspect Harnoko Dewantono, alias Oki, told a court yesterday his son had admitted to him early last year that he killed his younger brother, Eri Tri Harto Dharmawan.

"He told me he did it in self-defense because Eri was trying to kill him," witness Hendarno Hendarmin, 59, told the Central Jakarta District Court.

Hendarno said Oki told him that he and Eri were involved in a quarrel and that Eri tried to shoot him with a revolver, but the weapon turned out to be empty.

"Oki told me he used the opportunity to fight back and accidentally killed his own brother," he said.

He told the court he did not question Oki further on how he killed Eri, saying "I did not have the heart to press him further, because he looked very regretful already."

Hendarno, whose testimony was not taken under oath since he was a close relative of the defendant, said Oki's confession came after he asked his son whether he killed the three people whose mutilated bodies were kept in a storage locker in Los Angeles in the United States.

"I asked Oki in 1995 after reading about the killing of the three people, for which my son was then the prime suspect, in a news magazine " said Hendarno, a retired official of Bank Indonesia.

He told the court that when Oki confessed to the killing, he swore by the Holy Koran.

However, Hendarno said Oki denied killing his woman friend Gina Sutan Aswar and Indian businessman Suresh Gobind Mirchandani. The two victims were allegedly slain by Oki, 32, in Los Angeles, between 1991 and 1992.

Hendarno, who told the court he last saw Eri in 1990, said he still received a New Year's greeting card in January 1993 from Eri, which he said was the last time Eri had ever contacted him. He said Oki returned to Indonesia in February 1993.

In the government prosecutors' indictment, Oki was accused of murdering Eri between late 1991 and late 1992 at a weekly rental located on Palm Boulevard somewhere between Arizona Street and Princeton Street in Santa Monica, Los Angeles.

When asked by prosecutor J. Kamaru if he knew Gina and Suresh, Hendarno said: "I don't know Gina, but I once heard the name 'Suresh' mentioned by Oki, whom he said would buy his laundry business that he started with his ex-fiance Ipunk Rulyati and Eri."

Earlier, Ipunk's mother, Lies Soemardi, 47, told the court from the witness stand that she sent a total of US$500,000 to her daughter during the time she was staying with Oki.

The money, Lies said, has never been accounted for.

Ipunk, a former girlfriend of Oki, shared a house with him from 1987 to 1991.

Oki denied Lies' testimony.

Judge I.G.K Sukarata adjourned the hearing to next Tuesday, to hear more testimonies from, among others, Oki's mother, Sekartini Handijaya, who failed to show up yesterday due to a health problem. (26)