Reverse prosecution on Soeharto 'unviable'

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)