Banker 鈥榝it for trial鈥 but case delayed
Print Edition
A BRITISH banker accused of killing two Indonesian women was yesterday ruled fit to stand trial, but the case will be delayed for seven months for analysis of forensic evidence found with the victims’ mutilated bodies in his Hong Kong apartment.
Magistrate Bina Chainrai said Rurik Jutting, a former Bank of America Merrill Lynch employee, was mentally fit to face murder charges after two weeks of examination at the Siu Lam psychiatric centre.
The 29-year-old was charged with the murders of Seneng Mujiasih and Sumarti Ningsih after police found the bodies of the two women in his apartment, one of them decomposing in a suitcase.
In a surprise decision, Chainrai agreed to the prosecution’s request to delay the trial until July 6 while investigators comb through hundreds of pieces of evidence.
Dressed in the same black T-shirt he had worn when he last appeared in court two weeks ago, Jutting stood impassively in the dock as the magistrate made her ruling in a packed but silent courtroom.
He faces life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutor Louise Wong told the court that investigators would need 28 weeks to examine some 200 pieces of evidence, including conducting DNA tests.
“We are waiting for the chemists,” Wong said outside the courtroom.
The former high-flying securities trader will remain in custody while the forensic tests are carried out.
Ningsih’s father Ahmad Kaliman, 59, told reporters in Indonesia that he was “very disappointed” with the court’s decision to delay the trial.
A father’s ‘indescribable pain’
“The pain I feel as a father whose daughter was killed in such a brutal way is indescribable,” he said. “Why did the court in Hong Kong delay the trial for such a long time? I want him to be sentenced quickly. I’m very disappointed.”
The women’s bodies were found after Jutting called police to his flat in the early hours of November 1.
Mujiasih was found naked in the living room, with knife wounds to her neck and buttocks. Ningsih’s body was found hours later, stuffed into a suitcase on the balcony.
Police are investigating whether the victims were sex workers after cocaine and sex toys were found at the scene.
Hong Kong-based barrister Albert Luk said it was “not common but reasonable” for investigations to take so long in such a complex case.
“It may give an impression that it’s unfair for the defendant because he will be in jail without being convicted,” he said. “But murder is the most serious type of crime.”
Acquaintances described Jutting, a University of Cambridge graduate and former securities trader, as a “very, very ambitious” and a “classic banker” who pushed himself both academically and athletically.
On October 27, the day police believe Ningsih was killed, he posted on his Facebook page that he was embarking on a “new journey.”
“Stepping down from the ledge. Burden lifted; new journey begins. Scared and anxious but also excited. The first step is always the hardest,” he wrote.
He was also reported to be a regular in the red-light district near his apartment.
Both of the victims formerly worked in Hong Kong as domestic workers.
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