Police up the stakes for the capture of Tommy

JAKARTA (JP): The National Police is offering a Rp 500 million (US$43,860) reward to anybody who can get hold of the fugitive Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, youngest son of former president Soeharto, and hand him over to National Police headquarters.

"Rp 500 million goes to anybody who arrests and hands over Tommy to us," National Police chief of detectives Insp. Gen. Engkesman Hillep told reporters on Saturday.

"We also offer Rp 250 million to anybody who gives us correct information as to Tommy's whereabouts. We'll check out the place and if he is really there, Rp 250 million goes to the informant."

Tommy has been convicted in a graft case and is on the run.

Engkesman added that the reward should cut down on the thousands of people who have provided wrong information to police on Tommy's whereabouts.

"This reward will get people to take this matter seriously. Thousands of people have contacted police nationwide on Tommy's whereabouts ... none of them turned out to be right. Please let us know if you catch sight of him," Engkesman said.

So far, prosecutors have seized some Rp 11.7 billion of Tommy's assets in Jakarta as collateral for the latter's obligation to repay some Rp 30.6 billion in state losses he caused in a corrupt land swap deal in 1995.

After conducting nationwide searches, breaking into sections of the homes of the fugitive and his family members in the upmarket Menteng area of Central Jakara and questioning the fugitive's family members and lawyers, the National Police finally seemed to take a break from the search.

Earlier, former Attorney General Marzuki Darusman told a foreign magazine that Tommy was undoubtedly in the capital but that, for some reason, the police could never capture him.

The statement upset Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacob, who went so far as to say that Marzuki could talk until the cows came home if he wanted to. (ylt)