Elza to be summoned as suspect of bribery case next week: Anton

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After considering it for some time, the police finally named Elza Syarief, a lawyer for defendant Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, a suspect on Thursday for allegedly bribing witnesses in Tommy's case to lie before the court.

"Elza will be summoned as a suspect next week," City Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam told reporters.

Police said Elza bribed several witnesses to induce them to lie in Tommy's hearing on April 10 in an attempt to cover up Tommy's connection to illegal possession of firearms and ammunition found at the Soeharto family's Cemara Apartments in Central Jakarta.

Elza is accused of violating Article 242 of the Criminal Law on false testimony, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years in jail; and Article 2 of Law No. 11/1980 on bribery, which carries a maximum penalty of five years.

Nudirman Munir, a former lawyer for Tommy, would also be summoned as a suspect for allegedly obstructing the police investigation in the bribery case.

Although the country's legal system upholds the presumption of innocence principle, Elza should step down as Tommy's lawyer out of respect for her profession, according to Topo Santoso, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia Law School,

"A lawyer's obligation is to find the truth, not necessarily to get his or her client off the hook. According to the profession's ethics, a lawyer has no right to conceal the truth for any reason whatsoever," Topo told The Jakarta Post.

In fact, chief prosecutor Hasan Madani who is handling Tommy's case, requested the court last week to suspend Elza as Tommy's lawyer. But the request was rejected.

Two former security guards at Cemara Apartment, Rahmat Hidayat and Tatang Somantri, who are now under police detention, admitted that they had received Rp 2 million each from Elza to retract their statements made to the police.

"Why didn't the police arrest Ibu Elza, who gave the bribe? The police officials are not fair," Tatang told reporters at the police headquarter later on Thursday.

Tatang admitted that he escaped to his hometown in Garut, West Java, after the police caught Rahmat. A few days later, he surrendered himself to the police.

Before he left the city, he met Rahmat's lawyer, Nudirman Munir, who was also Tommy's former lawyer. Munir reportedly tried to force him to say that he had not received a bribe from Elza and ordered him to leave the city to avoid the police.

Nudirman will be charged with violating Article 221 of the Criminal Law on aiding and abetting a criminal or someone who is needed for an investigation, which carries a maximum penalty of nine months in jail.