Rurik George Caton Jutting, 29, is escorted by a police officer in a police van before appearing in a court in Hong Kong on Monday.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong police charged a British banker on Monday with killing two women, including an Indonesian whose body was found in a suitcase on the balcony of the man’s upscale apartment, authorities said.

The killings have shocked Hong Kong, an Asian financial hub with a reputation as a safe city with a low rate of violent crime.

Rurik George Caton Jutting appeared briefly at a preliminary hearing at which he spoke only to confirm that he understood the two murder charges against him.

Police earlier said Jutting, 29, had called them to his apartment in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai nightlife and red light district at 3:42 a.m. on Saturday. Court documents listed his nationality as British and his occupation as a “banker of Bank of America.” Jutting worked for the bank until recently, Bank of America Merrill Lynch spokesman Paul Scanlon said Sunday, without providing more details.

According to a police statement, officers rushed to the man’s apartment, where they found an unresponsive woman, aged 25-30, with cuts to her neck and buttock. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

While investigating, police found a suitcase on the balcony containing the body of a dead woman who had sustained neck injuries and had died a few days earlier, police said.

Police also seized a knife from the 31st floor apartment in the upscale J Residence tower.

A charge sheet said a woman named Sumarti Ningsih was killed Oct. 27, indicating she was the woman whose body was found in the suitcase. It said the other person was an “unknown female.” Indonesian Consulate spokeswoman Sam Aryadi said Sumarti came from the city of Cilacap in Central Java. He said the consulate was working with Hong Kong police to find out more about the second victim. Local media reports and Eni Lestari, an adviser with the Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Hong Kong, also indicated that the second woman was Indonesian.

 
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