UK banker back in Hong Kong court for murder appeal

Lawyers for Rurik Jutting presented their arguments Tuesday in the semiautonomous Chinese city’s Court of Appeal. (Pixabay photo)

HONG KONG— A British banker sentenced to life in prison for the gruesome slayings of two Indonesian women has appeared in a Hong Kong court in a bid to appeal his conviction.

Lawyers for Rurik Jutting presented their arguments Tuesday in the semiautonomous Chinese city’s Court of Appeal.

They were requesting the court’s permission for an appeal, on the basis that the trial judge gave incorrect instructions to the jury on deciding their verdict.

The nine-person jury last year convicted the Cambridge University-educated Jutting of the 2014 killings of Seneng Mujiasih and Sumarti Ningsih.

The case shocked residents of Hong Kong, while also highlighting wide inequality and seedy aspects usually hidden below the surface.

Jutting watched the proceedings from the dock Tuesday, often leafing through a bundle of court documents.