Soeharto loses case against 'Time'

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday threw out a defamation libel suit lodged by former president Soeharto against Time weekly over an article published last year which alleged the long-time authoritarian amassed huge wealth.

According to the panel of judges, chaired by Sihol Sitompul, the lawsuit failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that the New York-based magazine had defamed the ex-strongman through its May 24, 1999 cover story.

The court stated that Time had fulfilled journalistic standards required to publish the story.

"Any reports in the media over alleged corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) practices by state officials and their families must be accepted (by the public) as a need in the current reform era, as long as the reports don't violate human rights and the presumption of innocence principle," said presiding judge Sihol Sitompul while reading the verdict during the hearing.

Soeharto, who turns 79 on Thursday and is already under investigation for alleged corruption during his 32-year rule, filed the lawsuit in July last year.

In the lawsuit, Soeharto sought Rp 189 trillion (US$22.2 billion based on Tuesday's rate) in damages over the Time cover story article.

The magazine, the flagship of Time Warner Inc., reported in the article that Soeharto and his family amassed a fortune of around $15 billion, including $9 billion said to be stashed in an Austrian bank account.

Soeharto has denied the report, saying he did not have a "single cent" squirreled away abroad.

After Tuesday's hearing, one of Soeharto's lawyers, Juan Felix Tampubolon, told reporters that he and his colleagues, grouped in the defense team for the former president, would lodge an appeal to Jakarta's High Court.

Dozens of people, including scores of journalists, packed the courtroom during the two hour hearing, which started at 11 a.m.

The verdict, read out in turns by three judges, rejected the plaintiff's accusation that the magazine had defamed the former president through its cover story entitled Soeharto Inc: How Indonesia's longtime boss built a family fortune.

"The panel of judges agreed with the testimonies of witnesses that the term 'Soeharto Inc.' was not intended to defame the plaintiff.

"It's merely a metaphor to illustrate that the former president had great influence over all companies owned by the family of the plaintiff," said judge Endang Sumarsih.

The verdict also ruled out that the magazine had libeled Soeharto by running a picture of the former president hugging several luxury houses in London in the same article.

"It's a fact that the plaintiff's lawyers never denied that the house on 8 Winning Road London N.2 in United Kingdom was owned by the former president," said Endang.

About the paragraph in the report stating that "Time has learned that US$9 billion of Soeharto's money was transferred from Switzerland to a nominee bank account in Austria", the judges said in their verdict that several other media, including Austria's Wirtschafts Blatt (July 31, 1998 edition) and Gamma weekly (April 4, 1999 edition), had already run the same story about the alleged money transfer.

"Compared to other previous publications, the magazine didn't exaggerate in its report. And in addition, the magazine's reporters had contacted the president and his family for an interview, but they rejected the offer," judge Endang said, adding that the magazine then interviewed one of Soeharto's lawyers, O.C. Kaligis.

Sihol said since the publication was intended to serve people's interest, "it couldn't be categorized as slanderous, as 0outlined in Article 310 of the Law on Criminal Code Procedure," he said.

After the hearing, Juan said he was unhappy with the court decision, saying that the judges have violated court procedures.

"Judges have let witnesses reveal their assessments rather than their testimonies according to their respective expertise on the case," he said.

Time's lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis praised the verdict, saying that the decision marked a victory for press freedom in Indonesia.

"I was skeptical in the beginning, but finally the judges have sided with their inner selves and with a free press," he said.

Law and communication observer Andi A. Muis commented: "Time has proved that it ran an accurate, truthful and fair story, which could be held accountable before the law."

Separately, the U.S. Embassy welcomed the court's decision, saying that the charges had been "recognized worldwide as unworthy of the dignity of the court."

"This decision is a clear victory for the Indonesian justice system," the embassy said in a statement.

The Attorney General's Office has just placed Soeharto under house arrest and expect to bring charges against him by August.

His lawyers last week lodged a pretrial lawsuit against the Attorney General's Office, and the initial hearing was scheduled to be held on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said: "We are ready to face the pretrial lawsuit on Wednesday. It's almost routine, there is nothing to it." (asa/bsr/bby)