Reverse prosecution on Soeharto 'unviable'

JAKARTA (JP): Guilty until proven innocent -- in which one has to prove one's innocence -- cannot be applied to Soeharto and his family who allegedly amassed a fortune during the former president's 32 years in power, a law professor says.

Chainur Arrasyid of the Medan-based Sumatra Utara University (USU) in North Sumatra told Antara news agency on Thursday that the approach was not viable in the country's "conventional" legal system.

The country's current legal system upholds the presumption of innocence, he said.

"You just can't confiscate one's wealth before proving him guilty, it's not in line with the existing legal system," Chainur was quoted as saying.

The "reversed prosecution" method has never been used here and regardless of growing calls for such prosecution, it would not be easy to apply in Soeharto's case, Chainur said.

Under the current legal system, the state can confiscate a person's wealth only after proving him guilty of obtaining it illegally, he maintained.

Controversy surrounding Soeharto's wealth and discussions about ways to prove he is guilty or otherwise of obtaining it illegally, mounted after he said in a televised speech that he did not have a single cent stashed either here or abroad.

An investigation has so far failed to yield any results. Attorney General Andi Muhammad Ghalib defended his office's investigation's failure by saying that he could not find any traces of hidden wealth.

"How can someone be accused of stealing chickens when the chickens are nowhere to be found?" Ghalib said. "What is the basis of making Soeharto a suspect?"

U.S. magazine Forbes, in its July edition, estimated that Soeharto had a fortune worth US$4 billion deposited overseas.

In a related development on Friday, State Minister of Agrarian Affairs Hasan Basri Durin said his office had yet to find land certificates under the name of Soeharto, although it had found 15 documents across the country which had probable links to Soeharto's family.

"The office has just found one plot of land under the name of Tien Soeharto (Soeharto's late wife), even that's only (the site of) an old house. As for land certificates under the name of Soeharto, we haven't found any in the country," he was quoted by Antara as saying in Samarinda, East Kalimantan. (aan)