Immigration revokes Tommy's passport
Immigration revokes Tommy's passport
JAKARTA (JP): The Directorate-general of Immigration revoked
on Friday the passport belonging to Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra,
the youngest son of former president Soeharto, nearly two months
after the fugitive went missing on Nov. 3, 2000.
"The revocation of Tommy's passport is effective from today
(Friday)," Immigration spokesman Mursanuddin A. Ghani told
reporters at his office on Friday.
"The decision was made upon the request of the Attorney
General's Office, also dated today (Dec. 22, 2000)," he said.
The request for the revocation of Tommy's passport was signed
by Junior Attorney General for Intelligence Yusuf Kartanegara.
The spokesman said the legal basis that the Immigration office
had used to revoke Tommy's passport was Article 42 of Government
Regulation No. 36/1994 on Travel Documents.
The article stipulates that a person's passport can be revoked
if he or she has been declared by a court' ruling to have
violated the law or committed crimes.
"In case Tommy is already abroad, one day his passport will
expire and he must have it renewed. As his passport is already
revoked, he therefore will not be able to use it anymore.
"If he is arrested abroad, Tommy can be sent home using a
special travel document (SPLP), which is valid only for one
trip," Ghani said.
Tommy was convicted by the Supreme Court last September to
serve 18 months in prison and ordered to pay his share of Rp 30.6
billion (US$3.2 million) out of the total state losses of Rp 76.7
billion incurred in a 1995 land swap deal between Tommy's
wholesale firm PT Goro Batara Sakti and the State Logistics
Agency (Bulog).
But, he went missing one day after President Abdurrahman Wahid
refused to grant him a pardon on Nov. 2 and was immediately
declared a fugitive by the police.
His wife, Ardhia Pramesti Rigita "Tata" Cahyani, had given her
assurance that Tommy would not flee or avoid the prison sentence,
while asking for a stay of execution from the South Jakarta
District Court at the time her husband submitted an appeal for
presidential pardon.
Earlier, Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said that the
authorities deserved more time to find and arrest Tommy, while
refusing to set a deadline.
"What will happen if Tommy has not been found (by the
deadline), while I have pledged to arrest him," Marzuki has said.
The South Jakarta prosecutors have seized Tommy's private
assets located in West Java, including a 3.6-hectare plot of land
in Gunung Guling village, Cibinong area, Bogor, along with a
villa.
The prosecutors have also confiscated two plots of land in
Bulakan village, Serang, Banten province.
Earlier, the office had also taken Tommy's homes on Jl.
Cendana No. 12 and Jl. Yusuf Adiwinata No. 4, both in Menteng,
Central Jakarta, as collateral for his obligation to pay the
state losses as ordered by the Supreme Court.
In a related development, Head of the South Jakarta
Prosecutor's Office Antasari Azhar said on Friday that he would
file a civil lawsuit against Tommy for failure to return the Rp
30.6 billion of state losses as ruled by the Supreme Court.
"The value of the assets we have seized has yet to reach the
sum ordered by the Supreme Court. So, we plan to file the lawsuit
after the Idul Fitri holiday," he told journalists on the
sidelines of a function at the Attorney General's Office.
The prosecutors have also considered suing Tommy's wife, Tata,
over her unkept promise. (01/bby)