‘What a joke’: Family of Australian shot dead in Bali told to come back next week

Bali: The family of slain Australian Zivan Radmanovic is furious at travelling to Bali for the court verdicts on three men accused over a fatal ambush at a luxury villa last year, only to be told proceedings had been postponed until next week.

Ten family members, including one of Radmanovic’s six young children, waited for three hours for the judges to arrive and hand down their decision on Australians Mevlut Coskun, Paea I Middlemore Tupou and Darcy Jenson before the unexpected adjournment.

Radmanovic was killed in the early hours of June 14 inside the villa he and his wife, Jazmyn Gourdeas, were sharing with her sister and her sister’s partner, Sanar Ghanim – the apparent intended target of the attack.

The months-long, off-and-on trial heard that the accused were promised cash and a holiday by a mysterious figure in Australia in exchange for bashing or threatening Ghanim as a warning to pay back a debt.

But it was an amateurish operation. No one was supposed to get shot, Coskun and Tupou told the court in December, and certainly not Radmanovic. Ghanim was also shot but survived.

Coskun and Tupou are accused of premeditated murder and firearm offences. Jenson is accused of assisting premeditated murder.

Gourdeas had to leave five of the couple’s other children at home to make the journey for the verdicts. It is believed the family is supposed to be flying home to Australia on Tuesday. Outside court, Gourdeas, who had to explain the situation to her visibly devastated child, described the process as a “f—ing joke”.

The judges had given no notice that they were going to adjourn. They finally appeared in the courtroom about midday local time, already hours after the session was due to begin.

Everyone inside the room had believed the session was about to start when guards marched the suspects to their seats in the centre of the room. In bizarre scenes, the media crowded in front of Gourdeas and her family, blocking their view of the ultra-short proceedings.

But the judges then told the court that they had not reached a unanimous decision in the case of Jenson and wanted to read all three verdicts together next week.

Family members traded shocked glances as their lawyer translated. “What a joke,” one woman said. “It’s shocking.”

Gourdeas said on Monday the family had no idea what to do next.

“Your government hasn’t helped. Our government hasn’t helped. Nobody has helped us – every time, we have attended at our own cost, and we’re told today it’s adjourned, without being notified prior,” she said.

“Now what? What do we do? Go home and not be able to afford to come back next week, or wait in Bali and spend more money.”

Gourdeas’ Indonesia lawyer, Sary Latief, said the court should have found a way to give the family notice, describing the events as a failure of the Indonesian justice system.

“The court should have known that they’ll be coming here today,” she said. “This is the entire family flying … and the way the court was late [starting] today was already a huge distress for the family.”

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