Skepticism greets govt plan for Soeharto trial

JAKARTA (JP): The government's announcement that it is ready to file corruption charges against former president Soeharto was greeted on Thursday with skepticism, with most observers saying that the indictment was not tough enough.

Lawyer Frans Hendra Winarta regretted the government's decision not to prosecute Soeharto as a former president but rather as the chairman of seven tax-free charitable foundations.

"If he (Soeharto) were not the president, it would have been impossible for him to amass such a considerable amount of money," Frans told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview.

Attorney General Marzuki Darusman announced on Wednesday that his office had completed its corruption investigation against Soeharto for directing Rp 1.4 trillion (US$155 million) of state funds to the foundations.

The office revised the figure on Thursday, adding another US$416 million to the dossier, with the vague explanation that the additional money was based on the findings of an audit conduced by the Development and Financial Comptroller (BPKP).

The amount falls short of what has been estimated by many, and it is only a fraction of the US$45 billion that President Abdurrahman Wahid mentioned in Cairo last month as the net worth of Soeharto and his family.

The announcement on Wednesday raised the perennial question about Marzuki's creditability in handling the Soeharto case.

Frans said he doubted whether Marzuki, who is also a deputy chairman of Golkar, had the political will to prosecute "a former patron of his own party".

Soeharto, who has been under house arrest since May, was Golkar's chief patron for decades and one of his foundations, the Dakab Foundation, was specifically set up to finance the party's campaigns and activities.

Echoing Frans' opinion, Hendardi of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) said the charges were "too vague".

"If Soeharto is only mentioned in the charges as the founder of the foundations, then I am afraid this is a ruse or scenario to let him walk free because in this case, it is the executives of the foundations who should be held responsible," he said.

Respected lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said the charges were a "half-hearted" measure, as they stopped short of naming Soeharto in his capacity as former president.

The 3,500 page dossier, the result of a seven-month investigation dogged by controversies, is now in the hands of the Jakarta high prosecutor's office. The case is expected to be filed with the South Jakarta District Court on Aug. 2.

Ten prosecutors have been assigned to study the charges and it will take them three days before formally filing the case with the court, Andi Syarifuddin, an official at the prosecutor's office, said.

The prosecutors plan to bring more than 140 witnesses to testify against Soeharto in the trial, he said.

Lawyers for the former president still insisted on Thursday that their client was not well enough to appear before a court.

Soeharto suffered a stroke last year and was also hospitalized for another ailment.

"The first obstacle the court has to face is Soeharto's health," lawyer Muhamad Assegaf was quoted as saying by Reuters.

"Soeharto still is suffering from brain damage which makes him unable to communicate."

Assegaf accused the government of timing its announcement to deflect attention from Abdurrahman's appearance before the People's Consultative Assembly next month, where he is expected to face a tough time as he accounts for his stormy first year in power.

"They're just trying to give a long list of accomplishments to support... (the President's) report," he said.

Former judge Adi Andojo Soetjipto said, however, that the court "will not simply accept" that he is too ill to stand trial as has repeatedly been claimed by Soeharto's lawyers.

"I believe that there will be an examination (on Soeharto's health) first and then the judges will decide whether Soeharto is fit to stand trial or not," Adi told the Post.

Adi also called on the government to appoint judges "from outside Jakarta" to try the Soeharto case because they were relatively clean from corrupt practices.(byg/bby)