Police enter secret 'bunker', but fail to find Tommy<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): After two days of continuous drilling, police
\nofficers on Tuesday eventually broke into an air-conditioned
\nunderground bunker below the Central Jakarta home of the fugitive
\nHutomo \"Tommy\" Mandala Putra.<\/p>\n
Secretary to the city police detectives chief, Adj. Snr. Comr.
\nAbdullah, said police spent all of Tuesday afternoon making an
\ninventory of what was found in the four meter by four meter room.<\/p>\n
\"No Tommy (in there). We did find a complete kitchen set, an
\nexhaust fan, brand new air-conditioner, racks and shelves, tool
\nkits and electric lights,\" Abdullah told reporters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Chief of the city police detectives Snr. Comr. Harry Montolalu
\nsaid police were unable to find the switches to turn the electric
\nlights on.<\/p>\n
\"We are checking whether the room is interconnected with
\nothers,\" Harry told reporters.<\/p>\n
There have been several reports of interconnecting bunkers
\nbelow the adjoining residences of the former first family,
\nlocated in Jakarta's plush Menteng area.<\/p>\n
Harry said the bunker appeared to have a hydraulic door and
\nthat the police were unable to find the switch which operated it.<\/p>\n
After conducting raids in over 100 places nationwide last
\nweek, including the Surakarta residence of former Minister of
\nDefense and Security, Gen. (ret) Wiranto, police suspected that
\nTommy, a 38-year-old billionaire businessman, could be hiding in
\nthe bunker.<\/p>\n
The opening of the bunker was witnessed by Tommy's sister,
\nSiti Hutami \"Mamiek\" Endang Adiningsih, and the Soeharto family
\nlawyer, Juan Felix Tampubolon, stuck to his earlier statements
\nthat the bunker was nothing but a stuffy cellar.<\/p>\n
\"A person might choose to hide there if he had chosen to
\ndie... it's so stuffy. The room is also not lit. My client
\n(Tommy) wouldn't hide in there,\" Juan told reporters outside
\nTommy's Menteng residence.<\/p>\n
Juan had earlier told reporters that police were illegally
\nbreaking the floors of Tommy's home, since the police had no
\nwarrant from any Jakarta court authorizing them to do so.<\/p>\n
\"The police only have a search warrant. We strongly object to
\nthis demolition and will soon take legal action,\" Juan had told
\nreporters.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Tommy's lawyer Elza Syarief said on Tuesday that
\nTommy's wife, Ardhia Pramesti Regita Cahyani, was quite upset
\nover the breaking of the floors in Tommy's house.<\/p>\n
\"She was angry... she's currently in Singapore. She felt hurt
\nthat this was being done to the house,\" Elza told reporters.<\/p>\n
Elza was questioned as a witness by National Police detectives
\non Tuesday, over the events leading up to the disappearance of
\nTommy in November last year.<\/p>\n
Police, Elza said, focused their questions on \"how Tommy was
\nable to escape.\"<\/p>\n
\"It was obvious they were focusing their questions on this
\nissue... they asked me questions like how many times did Tommy
\nmeet with President Abdurrahman Wahid before he disappeared. I
\ntold them twice, at the Hotel Borobudur and Hotel Regent late
\nlast year,\" Elza said.<\/p>\n
\"I told them I had no idea what went on in those two meetings
\nsince I wasn't present. The police also asked me how many times
\ndid Tommy meet with Hasyim \"Gus Im\" Wahid before he disappeared.
\nI told them only once, at Gus Im's residence.\"<\/p>\n
In November last year, President Abdurrahman rejected Tommy's
\nappeal for a pardon in respect of the conviction imposed by the
\nSupreme Court, reversing a lower court ruling. (ylt)<\/p>",
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