Oki's murder trial likely to be held up again

JAKARTA (JP): The Los Angeles triple murder case, adjourned until June 27, may be postponed again as the lawyer the defendant wants on the case has refused the case. He dismissed on Thursday the lawyers he previously engaged to defend him.

Lawyer Amir Syamsuddin, whom the defendant claimed to have engaged as his defense lawyer, said yesterday that he may not be interested in defending Harnoko Dewantono, better known as Oki.

"I'd like to say that I no longer want to be his lawyer due to the previous traumatic lesson that I had from him," lawyer Amir Syamsuddin told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

Amir resigned as Oki's lawyer in a passport forgery case last year following pressure from the client's family. Oki was then defended by lawyers from Ruhut Sitompoel, Tommy Sihotang and Associates law firm.

Amir said that he was previously summoned by the police to testify as to whether police officers had battered Oki during questioning as reported by Oki.

Oki's hearing in Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday lasted less than five minutes after Oki dismissed his lawyers and told the court that his new lawyer, Amir Syamsuddin, was ill.

The hearing was adjourned until June 27.

In an interview a few hours after the adjournment, Amir said that he had never promised to defend Oki.

"He gave the court a false statement when saying I am sick," Amir said on Thursday. "I've just attended the trial of the defunct Tempo magazine at the Supreme Court."

There is speculation that Oki is intentionally stalling his trial by appointing a new lawyer.

His former lawyers from Ruhut Sitompoel, Tommy Sihotang and Associates law firm who said Oki engaged them to defend him were shocked when Oki dismissed them only minutes before the trial started on Thursday. Tommy said he had Oki's official request to defend him in court.

"I'm not so sure we'll want to defend him. He never makes clear decisions," Tommy said outside the courtroom.

According to a senior lawyer who refused to be named, it's unacceptable for legally appointed lawyers to be dismissed by the client at the last minute.

"If that happens, the lawyers can sue the client for misconduct," the lawyer told the Post.

"I strongly believe that the three lawyers (from the Ruhut Sitompoel, Tommy Sihotang & Associates law firm) had no legal appointment, if they had they should have sat at the lawyers bench and the client would have had no right to suddenly fire them," the source said.

When Oki asked the court to reschedule the trial, prosecutor J. Kamaru demanded the judges follow the schedule by reading the indictment in order to save time.

"We have wasted much time to complete the dossiers," the prosecutor told the courtroom which was packed, mostly with reporters and police officers.

However, Judge Sukarata pounded the gavel to end the session before the prosecutors read the charges.

Oki, who ran a small business in Los Angeles, is now serving a two-year prison term for passport forgery.

He is now being tried for having tortured and fatally shot his Indian business colleague, Suresh Michandani, 45, in August 1991. Then he allegedly battered to death a female friend, Gina Sutan Aswar, 28, and his natural brother, Eri Tri Harto Darmawan, 26, in November 1992.

Oki was apprehended in Indonesia early last year for passport forgery and was later questioned about the murders. (bsr)