Police say judge to decide venue for Oki's trial

Police say judge to decide venue for Oki's trial

By K. Basrie

JAKARTA (JP): The site of the trial of Hernoko Dewantono, alias Oki, the only suspect in a triple murder in Los Angeles, is once again up in the air.

Police officers, who earlier insisted that Oki had to be tried in Indonesia, now say a judges' decision will determine the place of trial.

"Police have the right only to investigate the case and compile the findings into dossiers, not to determine the venue of the trial," National Police Chief Gen. Banurusman Atsrosemitro said over the weekend.

This apparent about face in the attitude of the police force has left a big question mark as to where and when Oki will be tried.

Oki was arrested early this month in Central Jakarta on the allegation of passport forgery.

Based on a warrant of arrest issued by the Los Angeles police, local detectives have begun to question Oki about his alleged role in the killing of his brother Tri Harto Darmawan, known as Eri, Gina Sutan Aswar, a young Indonesian woman, and LA businessman Suresh Mirchandani of Indian origin.

Many people believe that the case might be more attractive to a curious public were the trial to be carried out in Los Angeles due to the fact that a number of people from wealthy and noted Indonesian families can be expected to turn up in court as witnesses.

Just a few days after the police began to investigate Oki for his alleged role in the killing of two Indonesians and a businessman of Indian origin in Los Angeles, senior local police officers, commenting on the strong possibility that Los Angeles might also want the suspect, said he had to be tried here.

"There's no consensus (with Washington) on this matter. Oki has to be tried here," Maj. Gen. Mochammad Hindarto, the former city police chief, said last week.

Sharing Hindarto's view, the head of the National Crime Investigation Directorate, Brig. Gen. Rusdihardjo, said: "No government in this world wants to see a citizen punished by other country's court."

The officers supported the statements by sending a group of four senior detectives to Los Angeles to collect material evidence, question witnesses and study a number of places where the victim's are believed to have been killed and the site where their bodies were discovered.

Reports made by several Jakarta journalists who covered the detectives' visit there stated that the Los Angeles police, who were very helpful to the visiting detectives, still refused to hand over important evidence to the Jakarta police.

The visiting detectives were only allowed to photograph the material and legalize the prints at the Indonesian consulate there.

This indicates that Los Angeles may want to try Oki there, although there has been no formal statement from the Los Angeles police on the trial venue.

As has been reported earlier, two Los Angeles detectives are expected to arrive here this week along with the Jakarta team. They are expected to study all information collected by the local detectives here.