Police detain Tommy's lawyer in bribery case
Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Leo Wahyudi S, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta Police detained Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra's lawyer, Elza Syarief, on Monday evening for allegedly bribing two witnesses to lie to the court during her client's trial.
Elza signed her detention letter at 6:30 p.m., after being questioned for over seven hours at the Jakarta Police Headquarters, according to Adj. Sr. Comr. Anton Wahono, the chief detective in the city police's corruption division.
A letter was sent to Elza's husband, Rear Adm. Yuswaji, a member of the Navy's intelligence division, notifying him of her detention.
The police charged Elza with violating Article 242 of the Criminal Code on giving false testimony under oath, and Article 2 of Law No. 11/1980 on bribery.
The first violation carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison, and the second five years in prison.
During Monday's questioning, the police allowed Elza to take several breaks to refresh herself. Elza arrived at police headquarters at about 10:25 a.m. wearing a red pantsuit, and later in the afternoon she was wearing a green pantsuit.
Although allegations of bribery are not new for the country's judiciary, where the practice of bribing witnesses, prosecutors and judges is believed by many to be commonplace, this is the first instance of a lawyer being detained by the police over such charges.
Despite the seriousness of the charges against Elza, she should not have any difficulty finding lawyers willing to defend her. According to T. Gayus Lumbuun, the head of Elza's current defense team, there are some 50 lawyers and advocates ready to defend their colleague.
Last year, in the name of solidarity, dozens of lawyers came out to support another of Tommy's lawyers, Juan Felix Tampubolon, who was named a suspect for allegedly aiding his then fugitive client in eluding the police. The final outcome of that case was never announced.
Lumbuun told journalists that Elza admitted to having given Rp 1 million each to Rahmat Hidayat and Tatang Somantri, both former security guards at the Soeharto family-owned Cemara Apartments.
"It (the money) was used by the two witnesses to buy decent clothes for their appearance at Tommy's trial ... and for other things, too," Lumbuun said.
Rahmat and Tatang, who are currently in police detention, have said that Elza gave them each Rp 1 million before they testified in court, and after testifying on April 10 they received another Rp 1 million each from Elza's employee, Tiurma Sondang Pasaribu.
The police believe that Elza bribed Rahmat and Tatang to retract earlier statements they gave to police implicating Tommy in the illegal possession of firearms, and to deny that the signatures on the statements were theirs.
On April 14, the police arrested Rahmat for giving false testimony to the court. Several days later, Tatang was arrested on the same charge.
Earlier on Monday, the ethics board of the Indonesian Advocates and Lawyers Association (HAPI) said it had yet to reach a decision on whether Elza violated the association's code of ethics.
"We (the five-members ethics board) have yet to reach a decision in this matter," said lawyer Yan Apul Girsang, who heads the board. The board plans to announce its decision next week.
If Elza is ruled to have committed a serious violation of HAPI's code of ethics, the association could revoke her membership and ask the Supreme Court to suspend her license to practice law.
Many legal observers, however, believe the association launched its investigation into Elza's alleged breach of ethics in order to deter the police from summoning her as a suspect in a criminal investigation.
During a hearing of the ethics board last week, Elza said she gave a total of Rp 5.8 million to Rahmat and Tatang, as well as to Marvin Hukom and Beni M. Robani, two other employees of the Cemara Apartments who testified at Tommy's trial.
Elza claimed she gave Rahmat and Tatang Rp 1 million each to buy new clothes for the trial out of "humanitarian concerns".