Oki's lawyers pounce on technicalities
Oki's lawyers pounce on technicalities
JAKARTA (JP): Lawyers of Harnoko Dewantono, a triple murder suspect on trial for passport forgery, are hoping to capitalize on several technicalities in order to have the prosecutors' forgery indictment rejected.
Three lawyers from the Ruhut Sitompoel, Tommy Sihotang & Associates law office told the South Jakarta court at the trial's second session yesterday morning that the charges read by the prosecution in the first trial on Wednesday were not sound legally.
According to Ruhut Sitompoel, the passport forgery trial of their client, Harnoko Dewantono, alias Oki, should not be taking place at the South Jakarta court because the crimes took place not only in Indonesia but also in Malaysia, Singapore and the United States.
Under these circumstances, Ruhut said, only the Central Jakarta Court has the authority to arraign Oki.
"The prosecutors have given no basic explanation as to why they chose this venue for the trial," said Ruhut.
In his indictment last Wednesday, prosecutor Abdul Muis Gassing told presiding judge Doris A.A. Taulo that Oki, a former employee at a Jakarta leasing company PT Perdana Multi Finance, falsified and repeatedly used two fake passports.
One of the passports had a fake name and the other one had a photo of him bearing the name of his younger brother, Tri (Eri) Harto Darmawan, one of three victims murdered in Los Angeles.
According to Muis, Oki obtained the first passport in July 1991 from the South Jakarta immigration office by using the name of Oki Harnoko. With the passport, valid until 1997, Oki left for the United States in October 1992, and arrived back in February 1993, through Soekarno-Hatta international airport.
In June 1993, Oki managed to get another passport for his late brother at the Indonesian consulate in Chicago, valid for two years. He then used the two-year passport to enter Indonesia the following month through Polonia airport in Medan, North Sumatra. A few weeks later, he used the same documents to go to Malaysia via Soekarno-Hatta airport and arrived back a week later through Polonia airport, Muis added.
Ruhut asked, "On what grounds did the prosecutors choose the South Jakarta court since some events took place at the Soekarno- Hatta airport located in Tangerang and Polonia airport in Medan, North Sumatra?"
Oki was accompanied by Ruhut and his colleagues Tommy Sihotang and Petrus Bala Pattyona.
Prosecutor Muis accused Oki of violating two rules of the criminal code and three others stated in article 55 of the Immigration Law.
He charged that Oki used various documents concomitantly and that the documents were falsified through means prohibited in articles 263 and 270 of the criminal code. The first violation carries a maximum penalty of six years imprisonment, while the second carries two years and eight months.
The trial yesterday lasted less than half an hour and was adjourned until Monday to hear the prosecutors' response.
Judge Doris expects to issue a verdict on May 10. (bsr)