Sydney man accused of role in Bali hit was on ‘free holiday’

Singapore/Bali: For a supposed “free holiday” in Bali, Sydney plumber Darcy Jenson faces the prospect of meeting an Indonesia firing squad.

The 27-year-old is one of three Australians accused of the execution-style killing of Melbourne father-of-six Zivan Radmanovic inside a Bali villa located just north of Canggu in June.

On Wednesday, the trio of Mevlut Coskun, Paea I Middlemore Tupou and Jenson were formally handed over to Bali prosecutors following the conclusion of the initial police investigation.

Each man could face the death penalty if found guilty in Bali’s conviction-happy courts.

Speaking to this masthead outside the Badung regency prosecutor’s office, Jenson’s lawyer Katharina Nutz said her client had admitted to transporting his co-accused, buying the hammer that broke through the villa window and organising certain logistics.

It was a favour to a mystery “friend”, she said. In exchange, the friend “paid for the plane tickets, villa, and everything else.”

“For the rest of [Jenson’s] role, you have to wait for the trial,” she said.

Nutz has previously claimed her client knew “nothing”, and had “no idea” what was in the backpack that he allegedly handed to his co-accused in the getaway car before it was tossed. Bali police say the backpack had guns.

A police re-enactment staged in July suggested he was not suspected of being a trigger man.

This masthead revealed at that time that Jenson claimed to be performing his alleged role as part of a so-called favour to someone else. But when asked on Wednesday if detectives had investigated that person’s identity and involvement, Badung police chief Arif Batubara said the question was “the first we have heard of this”.

He promised to follow up with Jenson’s lawyers.

Radmanovic, or “Stipe”, was gunned down in the early hours of June 14 while his wife, Jazmyn Gourdeas, hid under the bedcovers. The pair had been in Bali for two days as part of a belated honeymoon and to celebrate her 30th birthday, Gourdeas, through her lawyers, said.

Another Melbourne man, Sanar Ghanim, who was once in a relationship with the stepdaughter of dead underworld figure Carl Williams, was beaten and shot in the leg in the attack, but survived.

The motive remains unclear. Gourdeas has allegedly told police she did not know who would want to harm her husband, and that she wanted closure.

Police arrested Jenson in Jakarta days after Radmanovic’s death. Soon after, Tupou was detained in Cambodia and Coskun in Singapore.

Ricky Rajinder Singh, the lawyer for Coskun and Tupou, said on Wednesday his clients had “not told me either way” if they were innocent or guilty. Neither had they asked him about the potential death penalty.

“They do not understand the Indonesian legal system,” he said.

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