No pardon for Tommy: President

No pardon for Tommy: President

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid said that he would
not pardon former president Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo
"Tommy" Mandala Putra, who has been sentenced to an 18-month jail
term for corruption.

Asked by journalists on Wednesday upon his arrival at Halim
Perdanakusuma airport from a 10-day overseas trip if he would
pardon Tommy, Abdurrahman said: "No, no, no".

The President, who last month wanted police to arrest Tommy
for his alleged role in a series of bomb blasts in the capital,
said he had discussed the possibility of clemency with Attorney
General Marzuki Darusman on Tuesday.

"I got a call from the Attorney General when I was in
Vancouver asking me if we would give clemency ... and I said
no," Abdurrahman said.

He added that whether Tommy would be immediately sent to jail
or not would be "up to the Attorney General".

Tommy is free at the moment even though the Supreme Court
overturned last week an earlier decision and convicted him
together with his business partner Ricardo Gelael for a Rp 95
billion (US$11 million) land swindle.

On Tuesday, Tommy formally filed an appeal for a presidential
pardon.

When asked whether the President would like to see Tommy in
jail, Abdurrahman simply said: "It's not a matter of like or
not ... it's about law".

Later in the day, State Secretary Djohan Effendy said that so
far there had been no move towards issuing a presidential decree
on the denial of the appeal.

The process of issuing the decree, he explained, could be
short or could take some time.

Attorney General Marzuki said later that his office had to
wait for a formal written rejection from the President before
they could lock Tommy in prison.

Antasari Azhar, chief of the South Jakarta Prosecutor's office
which is responsible for implementation of the sentence, shared
the same view.

"The (President's) statement (alone) cannot serve as a basis
to implement the sentence," Antasari was quoted by Antara as
saying.

One of Tommy's lawyers said on Wednesday that he had not yet
heard of Abdurrahman's rejection and that the defense team would
not take any action until a presidential decree is issued.

"I haven't heard of the rejection. In any case, we will wait
for the presidential decree to be issued on the matter. We will
not risk taking any unnecessary step," Bob R.E. Nasution told The
Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Another of Tommy's lawyers, Erman Umar, said he had predicted
that Abdurrahman would reject his client's request for pardon.

"We have been pessimistic from the beginning that Gus Dur
would grant pardon to our client as he has been eagerly seeking
to arrest Tommy," Erman said.

"We have planned to appeal for a review of the verdict. But
that would be our last measure," he added.

Last month police failed to fulfill Abdurrahman's order to
detain Tommy in connection with the recent bombings in the city,
saying that they had insufficient evidence to do so.

The land swindle centered on land leased from the National
Logistic Agency (Bulog) by a supermarket chain owned partly by
Tommy in an agreement prosecutors alleged caused losses to the
country.

The 1950 law on presidential pardon stipulates that an appeal
for pardon must go through a series of phases before reaching the
president and that the process could take at least one month.

The law also says that the president could consider inputs
from the Supreme Court, attorney general and justice minister
before making a decision.

On Tuesday, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza
Mahendra said that the President's decision whether to grant
pardon or not could be made without considering the Supreme
Court's recommendation.

Later on Wednesday, human rights activist Teten Masduki
praised the President's decision to reject Tommy's appeal for
pardon but warned against the use of Tommy's case as a "trade-
off" for the dismissal of the Soeharto trial.

The South Jakarta district court decided last week to drop all
charges against former president Soeharto after an independent
medical team of 24 doctors declared that he was physically and
mentally too ill to stand trial.(byg/bby/edt/ylt)