Detention status of Soeharto changed to city arrest

Detention status of Soeharto changed to city arrest

JAKARTA (JP): In an apparent move to smooth the way for the
prosecution of former president Soeharto, the South Jakarta
District Court changed the defendant's detention status on
Tuesday from house arrest to city arrest.

M. Yusuf, a clerk at the South Jakarta District Court, said
the issuance of the new status was in anticipation of the
beginning of Soeharto's corruption trial later this month.

"The new detention status for former president Soeharto was
handed over to his family, through one of his defense lawyers,
O.C. Kaligis, earlier today (Wednesday)," he said.

"The decree on the defendant's new detention status was signed
by the head of the South Jakarta District Court, Lalu Mariyun, on
Tuesday.

"The city arrest status, valid for 30 days, became effective
on Aug. 3, 2000," he said.

The decree automatically nullified a previous decree, issued
by the assistant for special crimes investigation at the Jakarta
Prosecutor's Office, Andi Syarifuddin, on Aug. 3, 2000, which put
the former strongman under house arrest. This decree was to have
been valid until Aug. 22.

The South Jakarta District Court received the dossiers on
Soeharto on Tuesday, but has yet to decide on the schedule or
venue for the trial.

Lalu Mariyun hinted the initial hearing would be held after
the Aug. 18 completion of the ongoing Annual Session of the
People's Consultative Assembly.

Mariyun repeated on Wednesday that the court had yet to decide
on a venue for the trial, but insisted it would be held within
the court's jurisdiction.

Asked why it was taking so long for the court to announce a
venue for the trial, he said it had to consider the fact that
there were no courtrooms large enough to hold the trial and also
had to address security problems.

Mariyun, however, expected the trial would proceed smoothly.
"I hope there will be no outside intervention in the court
trial."

Bob Hasan

In a separate development, the Attorney General's Office
completed on Wednesday the dossiers on timber tycoon Mohammad
"Bob" Hasan, who is accused of graft which caused some US$75.62
million in losses to the state and some $168 million in losses to
the Indonesian Forest Concessionaires Association, which he
chaired from 1992 to 1997.

Hasan, who briefly served as the minister of industry and
trade, has been detained in a cell in the Attorney General's
Office since March 28, after being named a suspect in a $87
million fraud case involving a 1992 government contract to
perform aerial mapping and airborne radar imaging of the
country's forestry resources.

The project was awarded to Hasan, Soeharto's one-time golfing
buddy, and was completed by one of his companies, PT Mapindo
Parama.

The director of investigation at the Attorney General's
Office, Ris Pandapotan Sihombing, handed over three bundles of
dossiers, each consisting of around 3,000 pages, to Mochtar
Arifin, the director of prosecution at the Attorney General's
Office.

"The case will likely be handed over to the Jakarta
Prosecutor's Office on Thursday," Mochtar said.

Along with the dossiers, the investigators also submitted
evidence from the case, including a seized BMW sedan, the
building and land belonging to PT Mapindo Parama, the photos of
the aerial mapping project and documents. (bby)