Banker Rurik Jutting indicates he may plead not guilty to Hong Kong murders
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Version 0 of 1. The British banker accused of murdering two Indonesian women whose mutilated bodies were found in his Hong Kong apartment has indicated he may plead not guilty – setting the stage for a months-long trial. Rurik Jutting, 30, a former Bank of America Merrill Lynch employee, did not officially lodge a plea at the magistrates court hearing. But when magistrate Jason Wan asked: “I take it as not guilty?” the one-time securities trader, wearing the same black T-shirt and dark-rimmed glasses as in previous hearings, replied: “Correct”. The case has been sent for trial at Hong Kong’s high court, Wan said, without giving a specific date. If Jutting had pleaded guilty to murder, he would have received a mandatory life sentence. A not guilty plea would lead to a jury trial that could take months and would end in the same sentence if convicted of the murder charges. “If the person wanted to plead guilty, it’s the first opportunity he could do so, then the case is sent straight for sentencing in the high court,” Jutting’s lawyer Michael Vidler said outside the courtroom on Friday. “He indicated in court that it’s not the situation.” Seneng Mujiasih, 29, and Sumarti Ningsih, 25, were found dead in Jutting’s flat in the early hours of 1 November after he called police to the scene. Mujiasih was found in the living room, naked and with knife wounds , while the decaying body of Ningsih was found hours later in a suitcase on the balcony. The Cambridge graduate is being held at Hong Kong’s maximum security Siu Lam psychiatric prison. Jutting was deemed fit to stand trial in November following psychiatric tests. |