Attorney General ready to rush Soeharto report

Attorney General ready to rush Soeharto report

JAKARTA (JP): Acting Attorney General Ismudjoko said his
office could not complete the investigation of former President
Soeharto by Thursday's promised deadline, but said that if
required a hastily compiled report could be presented to
President B.J. Habibie.

"We haven't completed our investigation but if (Minister of
Justice) Pak Muladi wants me to present a report at Thursday's
Cabinet meeting, we can rush our report ... but not our
investigation," Ismudjoko said at his office here on Friday.

Ismudjoko explained that what could be presented were the
latest developments of the inquiry, and not a conclusion, as the
investigation was still underway.

He added that Thursday's report would not touch upon the
former president's legal status in the corruption case.

According to Ismudjoko, the government, after considering the
reports from two separate investigations conducted by the
Attorney General's Office and the Ministry for Development
Supervision and State Administrative Reforms, would decide
whether to continue or cease the investigation.

"The government will only make a statement on the fate of the
investigation. Whether or not it will be continued or suspended.

"The legal status (of Soeharto) will only be determined in a
courtroom," said Ismudjoko, who took over from suspended Attorney
General Andi M. Ghalib in June.

Despite waves of public criticism, the government has failed
to make progress on the alleged corruption of the 78-year-old
former president during his three decades of power.

Minister of Justice Muladi said once again on Wednesday that
the government would need another week to coordinate, combine and
study the findings of the two separate investigations. He
expected an announcement to be made during Thursday's Cabinet
meeting.

When pressed by reporters on Friday, Ismudjoko refused to say
whether the eight-month investigation had so far revealed any
irregularities or offenses.

The probe into Soeharto was initiated in June last year and
later reinforced by a decree of the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR) in November.

"Based on the Assembly's decree, we're not allowed to
publicize our findings as we have to present them to the
President," Ismudjoko contended.

Ismudjoko was speaking to reporters after a meeting with a
group of lawyers from the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) who
urged the acting attorney general not to falter in his
investigation.

"We want to make sure that Soeharto's alleged corruption will
proceed to a trial," spokesman for the lawyers Iskandar Sonadji
said.

"We are getting the impression that it isn't going anywhere
other than checking Soeharto's presidential decrees and
foundations and that was only done as a response to public
pressure."

In a related development, lawyers from the Indonesian Legal
Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), Solidarity for
Indonesian Farmers (STI) and the Ampera Legal Aid Foundation,
grouped in Tapos, said they had registered a case at the Central
Jakarta District Court to support Time magazine, which is being
sued for libel by Soeharto.

"This lawsuit is filed with Time's case as we can support them
as the correct side. We have enough evidence to support them that
Soeharto, his family and cronies were greedy in amassing illegal
wealth, including illegally claiming people's land in several
areas in West Java," Tapos spokesman Johnson Panjaitan told a
press conference here.

The lawyers represented ten farmers from Cibeduk village in
Bogor, West Java, whose properties were seized several years ago
by people supposedly acting on behalf of Soeharto.

The United States-based magazine reported in May that the
former president and his children amassed a US15$ billion fortune
during his rule.

"If Time can win this case, we will likely prepare other
lawsuits on behalf of other farmers in other areas," Johnson
said. (emf)