UK banker on double murder charge grins leaving Hong Kong court

The bodies of the two young women who were murdered were due to be flown back to Indonesia on Tuesday morning.

British banker Rurik Jutting, charged with the murders of two women, smiles as he sits in a prison van leaving a Hong Kong court after his hearing on November 10, 2014. Philippe Lopez/AFP Photo

HONG KONG // A British banker charged with the murder of two young women flashed a smile as he left a Hong Kong court on Monday, after his case was adjourned for psychiatric evaluation.

Rurik Jutting, the 29-year-old securities trader who until recently worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has been accused of killing two Indonesian women whose mutilated bodies were found at his upmarket apartment on November 1.

The bodies of the victims – Seneng Mujiasih and Sumarti Ningsih, both in their 20s – were due to be flown back to Indonesia on Tuesday morning.

The case was “adjourned... for two psychiatric reports on the defendant’s fitness to plead”, said principal magistrate Bina Chainrai. Reports by two different doctors are required under Hong Kong law.

Mr Jutting shot a grin from the back of a prison van as he was leaving the court after the hearing. He will next appear on November 24.

On October 27, the day one of the victims was killed, Mr Jutting 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.

That same day, his licence from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority for dealing in and advising on securities was cancelled, according to its website.

Mr Jutting’s three licences for dealing in securities and futures contracts with the city’s Securities and Futures Commission also ended on October 28, according to its website.

* Agence France-Presse