Ask Gus Dur about Tommy: Titiek

JAKARTA (JP): Siti Hediati Hariyadi "Titiek" Prabowo became the latest child of former president Soeharto to have been grilled by the police over the whereabouts of her fugitive sibling Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra on Friday.

After the questioning, Titiek fought back, saying it was time the police asked President Abdurrahman Wahid about Tommy's disappearance.

"Don't just question our family (about Tommy's whereabouts). Gus Dur should be questioned too since he was the last person to speak (with Tommy)," Titiek said, referring to the President by his nickname.

Tommy's five siblings all claim to have no knowledge about his whereabouts.

Titiek, who spoke to reporters after being questioned for about six hours at the National Police Headquarters, declined to elaborate on her statement and rushed to her car and left.

According to Titiek's lawyer, Juan Felix Tampubolon, the fourth child of the former ruler was referring to a private meeting between Gus Dur and Tommy.

Gus Dur has acknowledged a secret meeting between him and Tommy took place at the star-rated Borobudur Hotel, Central Jakarta, in October.

However, Gus Dur dismissed speculation that he had made any deal to review the 18-month jail sentence handed down to Tommy, who was convicted in a Rp 76.7 billion corruption case in a land exchange deal with the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).

Many suspect that the meeting with Tommy was part of an arrangement the government made in an effort to secure the return of alleged ill-gotten wealth reportedly amassed by Soeharto's family during his 32 years in power.

Tommy has been on the run since Nov. 3, the day after Gus Dur refused to grant him a presidential pardon.

In their efforts to find the most wanted man in the country, the police have searched several houses of the Soeharto family's relatives and close associates across the country.

Businessman Setiawan Djody, whose house was searched by the police on Wednesday, said on Friday the search was futile because it was unlikely he would harbor Tommy since the Soeharto family had caused him great losses in the past.

Setiawan expressed suspicion that the search at his house was a ploy by a certain group to tarnish Gus Dur's image since he was a close friend of the President.

"Some party who doesn't like Gus Dur might have used our closeness to malign him with the search," Setiawan told a media conference at his house.

The police's painstaking efforts to find Tommy took National Police chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro to multimedia and telecommunications expert Roy Suryo.

Speaking in Yogyakarta, the hometown of Roy, Bimantoro said the multimedia expert was currently in Jakarta. The police are using Roy's services to trace all cell-phone calls made by Tommy, using a radio base station.

Meanwhile, Jakarta Police Insp. Gen. Mulyono Sulaiman denied an earlier report saying that the police had seized Tommy's getaway car. He said the police had only recorded the plate number of the car.

"It is Tommy that we are looking for, not his car. We found his car in his mother-in-law's house and we recorded that. No, we did not confiscate it because we are looking for Tommy and we will continue the search," Mulyono told reporters at a ceremony at the National Monument (Monas), Central Jakarta, to mark the deployment of security personnel in the city during Ramadhan.

Separately, the South Jakarta District Court clerical chief for criminal cases M. Yusuf said Tommy's appeal was being held up because one of the three presiding judges was sick and could not sign the report.

Attorney General Marzuki Darusman, meanwhile, revealed that President Abdurrahman had ordered the military to give the police access to military installations in their search for Tommy.

"So, if Tommy is suspected of hiding in one of the military installations -- as believed by many people -- the police have the right to search there," he said after installing Soeparman as deputy attorney for career development affairs.

Marzuki also admitted the police were being obstructed in the search by people loyal to Soeharto.

"Those people have enabled Tommy to elude prison. He could not have escaped without somebody's help," he said. (jaw/dja/bby/01)