Trial date set in Hong Kong bodies case
Print Edition
A BRITON accused of murdering two Indonesian women whose mutilated bodies were found in his Hong Kong apartment is to go on trial next year.
Rurik Jutting, a 30-year-old former Bank of America Merrill Lynch employee, has been charged with two counts of murder but has yet to enter a formal plea.
Jutting was not present at a brief hearing at Hong Kong’s High Court yesterday when the trial was set for October 25, 2016. The jury trial is expected to take around 20 days.
At a magistrates’ hearing in May, Jutting indicated he may plead not guilty to murder charges. He did not officially lodge a plea at that hearing, but when magistrate Jason Wan asked: “I take it as not guilty?,” the one-time securities trader replied: “Correct.”
Jutting faces life in prison if convicted of the murder charges.
Seneng Mujiasih and Sumarti Ningsih, both in their 20s, were found dead in Jutting’s flat in the early hours of November 1 after he had called police to the scene.
Mujiasih was in the living room, naked and with knife wounds to her legs and buttocks, while the decaying body of Ningsih was found hours later in a suitcase on the balcony.
The killings shocked the city and shone a spotlight on the seedy underbelly of the financial hub.
Police said cocaine and sex toys were found in Jutting’s apartment, just a few streets from Hong Kong’s red-light district, where he was said to be a regular.
The high-flying Cambridge graduate was being held at Siu Lam psychiatric prison — a walled hilltop compound on the outskirts of Hong Kong.
He has now been transferred to another maximum security prison at Lai Chi Kok, the court heard yesterday. No reason was given or the move.
Last November, Jutting was deemed fit to stand trial following psychiatric tests.
When asked about the length of time before the trial date, Jutting’s lawyer Michael Vidler said it was a “court scheduling matter.”
A pre-trial hearing is set for August 24 next year.
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