Gus Dur orders tapping of Tommy's phone
Gus Dur orders tapping of Tommy's phone
JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid has ordered
authorities to tap the cellular phone of former president
Soeharto's fugitive son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, a Cabinet
member said Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab quoted Abdurrahman as saying that
the President has "asked the Minister of Transportation and
Telecommunications Agum Gumelar to help police with things that
are difficult for the police to trace."
He cited attempts to trace the fugitive through his phone
calls.
It remains unclear to the public why such an effort had to be
disclosed to the media.
Tommy's younger sister Siti Hutami Endang Adiningsih told
police during questioning on Monday that Tommy had used his
cellular phone to contact her several times since he was declared
a fugitive.
But she claimed her 38-year-old brother never told her his
whereabouts during their conversations.
Tommy has been on the run since authorities declared him a
fugitive on Nov. 3 after he failed to turn himself in to serve an
18-month jail term for corruption.
Separately on Tuesday, the police stepped up their efforts to
search for the fugitive by combing the houses of businessman
Probosutedjo, a stepbrother of Soeharto, and businesswoman Maya
Rumantir, a former singer who has been widely rumored to have
close relations with Tommy.
As could easily have been predicted, the police left the two
places empty-handed, similar to the result of their search for
Tommy at the homes of the fugitive and his father in Menteng,
Central Jakarta a few days ago.
On Tuesday, the officers first searched Probosutedjo's house
on Jl. Diponegoro 20 in Menteng.
Led by Sr. Insp. Tagam Sinaga, the team which arrived at 2
p.m. immediately searched the luxury home. The owner,
Probosutedjo, arrived at his home 40 minutes after the police
search started.
After the search, Probosutedjo said: "The police have
inspected all rooms in the house but found nothing. In fact, he
(Tommy) was not here."
According to Probo, the last time he met Tommy was about two
weeks ago during Friday prayers somewhere in Jakarta.
"I warned Tommy that he should surrender. It should be O.K. to
spend some time in jail and, after that, the case is settled," he
said.
From Probosutedjo's house, the police moved to Maya's home on
Jl. Abdul Majid in South Jakarta. Rumors have it that the house
is a gift from Tommy.
In Yogyakarta, chief of Yogyakarta Police Brig. Gen. Logan
Siagian said his men had searched for Tommy at the house of Noto
Suwito, another stepbrother of Soeharto, in Kemusuk village,
Bantul regency, about 7 kilometers from Yogyakarta.
"He wasn't there, and there was no indication that he had been
in the house," he told reporters at his office on Tuesday.
Separately in the day, South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office head
Antasari Azhar vowed that his office would continue the search
and seize all assets of the fugitive throughout the country as
collateral to the latter's obligation as ruled by the Supreme
Court.
"The seized assets will be used to recover the Rp 30.6 billion
in state losses, in the land exchange deal case," he said.
The prosecutors have so far seized four of Tommy's assets,
including Tommy's home in Menteng, a villa and a plot of land in
Bogor, West Java and two plots of land in Serang, Banten
province.
Antasari denied that he impeded seizure of the assets, saying
that he would voluntarily testify to the police regarding his
office's action in carrying out the execution of Tommy's
sentence.
Attorney General Marzuki Darusman pressed the national police
recently to investigate Antasari, since the latter was suspected
of impeding both execution of Tommy's sentence and the seizure of
his assets. (byg/44/asa/bby)