Police finish dossier on Oki murder case

JAKARTA (JP): The dossiers on 30-year-old Harnoko Dewantono, better known as Oki and suspected of killing two Indonesians and an Indian in Los Angeles, will be handed over today to the Prosecutor's Office.

The head of the City Police General Crimes Directorate Lt. Col. Gories Mere said yesterday that police plan to call 39 witnesses. Twenty four of the witnesses will come from abroad, including Los Angeles police officers Ted Ball and Ed Ramirez. They also include an Indonesian citizen living abroad, Wanda Gularso.

"Oki will face charges for attempted triple murder," Gories said.

The police, according to Gories, have 109 pieces of evidence, some of which were imported from the U.S., including a revolver, a hammer and a monkey wrench believed to have been used to kill the victims: Indian Suresh Michandani, Indonesian Gina Sutan Aswar and Oki's brother Eri.

Police sources say that Suresh was tortured and shot to death in August 1991, while Gina was battered to death on Nov. 2, 1992 in Los Angeles. Eri was beaten to death at an apartment on Palm Boulevard, also in Los Angeles, several days after Gina's death.

The bodies of the three victims had been kept in a storage locker since May 1993, before being found by the Los Angeles police in August last year.

Oki was apprehended here early this year for passport forgery, for which he was sentenced to one year and four months in jail. He is at present being investigated in connection with the Los Angeles murders.

Meanwhile, Oki's lawyer, Ruhut Sitompul, told The Jakarta Post that, whatever the charges, he was ready.

"I am sure that Oki will not be sentenced to death," he said. (01)