HK murders: Dead woman's parents want death for killer

Ms Sumarti's mother Suratmi holding a picture of her daughter, whose mutilated and decomposing body was found on Saturday.
Ms Sumarti's mother Suratmi holding a picture of her daughter, whose mutilated and decomposing body was found on Saturday. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

CILACAP (Indonesia) - The parents of a young Indonesian woman murdered in Hong Kong have called for her "sadistic" killer to be put to death, a day after a British banker accused of killing her and a second woman appeared in court.

The mutilated and decomposing body of Ms Sumarti Ningsih, 23, was found on Saturday in a suitcase in Rurik Jutting's upmarket apartment.

"I am absolutely horrified. No mother could accept her child being hurt in such a terrible way," said Ms Sumarti's mother Suratmi yesterday. "My daughter did not deserve to die like this."

Jutting, a 29-year-old securities trader, who until recently worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, called the police to his home in the Wan Chai district in the early hours of Saturday.

They first found the naked body of Ms Seneng Mujiasih, 29, in the living room of the flat, on the 31st floor of a plush residential block. The Indonesian woman had knife wounds on her neck and buttocks.

The body of Ms Sumarti, who has a young son and was from a poor farming family, was discovered hours later, on the balcony, as police searched the apartment. Court documents said she was killed on Monday last week.

Her father spoke of his shock and anger at his daughter's death. Ms Sumarti, one of four children, was providing financial support to her family in Indonesia.

"I want the murderer of my child to be sentenced to death. He killed her sadistically, so he must be put to death," said her father Ahmad Kaliman, 58, who lives in Cilacap, a port town on the south coast of Java.

Hong Kong, however, does not impose the death penalty.

Ms Suratmi, 49, said the family was saddened by reports that Ms Sumarti was a sex worker, as they believed she was employed by a restaurant in Hong Kong.

Ms Sumarti had only elementary school education and worked in several Indonesian cities before moving to Hong Kong for the first time in 2011 to try and earn money to support her family.

Consulate officials said she came to Hong Kong last month, on Sept 1, and overstayed her one-month tourist visa.

Said Ms Suratmi: "My daughter was a good girl. She was never rude to anyone. She would send home 3 million rupiah (S$330) every month."

Ms Sumarti last transferred money to her father's bank account on Oct 22. There was no news from her after that.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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