Oki gets two years in jail for passport forgery

JAKARTA (JP): The South Jakarta District Court sentenced yesterday Harnoko Dewantono, alias Oki, to two years imprisonment for being found guilty of falsifying passports and using the fake documents.

Presiding Judge Dorris A.A. Taulo said in his verdict that the use of fake documents is a violation of Article 263 of the Criminal Code, and that possessing four passports, which are all valid in the same period, is a violation of Article 55 of Immigration Law Number 2, issued in 1992.

"Because of these violations we sentence the defendant to two years in jail," Dorris said. Dorris was accompanied by Judges Hasan Marzuki and Jenni S. Isman at the trial.

Responding to the court's ruling, the defendant said that he would appeal, as did the prosecutor, Abdul Muis Gassing, who last month demanded that Oki be sentenced to five years in prison on the basis of three charges.

The three charges are: the use of fake passports; providing inaccurate data or wrong information; and the use of more than one passport.

Oki has used four passports since July 1988. His first passport, No. A-406713, in the name of Harnoko Dewantono Hendarno, was issued on July 21, 1988, and was valid until July 21, 1990. It was renewed on June 20, 1994.

The second passport, No. B-262816, in the name of Harnoko Dewantono, was issued on Aug. 15, 1989, and valid until Aug. 15, 1995.

The third passport, No. B-646264, in the name of Oki Harnoko, was issued on July 1, 1991, and valid until July 1, 1997. And the fourth passport he used was No. D-312539, in the name of his late brother, Eri Triharto Darmawan.

All of the passports would be returned to the Immigration Directorate General for use as material evidence in Oki's other case.

Oki is also being charged for his alleged role in the killing of his female business partner, Gina Sutan Aswar, his brother, Eri Triharto, and his Indian business partner, Suresh Mirchandani, in Los Angeles, the United States.

The three were believed to have been killed at separate times, in 1991 and 1992, but were found together in a storage locker and identified late last year.

Los Angeles police handed over material evidence of the triple murder case to Jakarta police last April.

The material evidence, tightly sealed in two boxes and a bag, consists of 113 pieces of evidence, including two guns, a .38 caliber revolver and plastic sheets used for wrapping corpses.

The Police's Forensic Laboratory Center has been examining the evidence. (29)