Soeharto still a suspect: Judge Lalu
Soeharto still a suspect: Judge Lalu
JAKARTA (JP): South Jakarta District Court Chief Lalu Mariyun
insisted that former president Soeharto is still a suspect in the
multimillion-dollar graft case and that the case has not been
closed.
"Soeharto is a suspect. Should prosecutors decide to register
the case at the district court again, they are more than
welcome," Lalu told reporters at his office on Tuesday.
He said the court had never issued a verdict dismissing the
case for good, adding that the case was dropped due to the
prosecutor's failure to present the defendant in court.
"What we judges have done, is like what a court does with
police dossiers.
When the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office receives incomplete
dossiers from the police, the office returns it back to the
police for completion... and that's what we've been doing," Lalu
said.
"We have not freed Soeharto from any charges. He's a suspect."
On Thursday last week, the court led by Judge Lalu dropped the
graft charges against Soeharto after hearing medical arguments
from an independent team of doctors that the 79-year-old man was
mentally and physically unfit to stand trial.
"The court orders the case's registration number to be
scratched from the court's criminal case registers," Lalu had
said.
Soeharto, who left the presidency in May 1998 after 32 years
in power, never appeared in any of the three court sessions due
to his ill health.
He was accused of stealing US$571 million from the state by
funneling money from seven charity foundations he chaired into
the businesses belonging to his family and cronies.
Prosecutor Muchtar Arifin told the hearing he would appeal to
the Jakarta High Court.
According to Lalu, the public had the mistaken impression that
the dropping of charges by the court was primarily based on the
results of the medical reports.
"That's not the point. Why was it that Soeharto could be
(once) brought to Pertamina Hospital in South Jakarta for
reexamination by the medical team, but failed to show up in
court?
It's because of the prosecutors' failure (to bring Soeharto to
court)," Lalu said.
"They should have taken some sort of action. They were waiting
for judges to issue a court order to bring in the defendant by
force ... isn't that against the law on human rights?"
On the striking of the case's registration number from the
court's criminal case registers, Lalu said that it was "no big
thing."
"The case has not been stopped in any way... whether tomorrow,
a week or a month later, if prosecutors want to bring back the
case into this court, the case will just get a new number."
On the Aug. 28 hearing, the judges objected to fulfilling
prosecutor Muchtar's demand that they (the judges) should visit
Soeharto's residence on Jl. Cendana to check Soeharto's health
directly.
"Why should judges give priority to this defendant? He
deserves no special treatment. The case should proceed in court,
and not at the defendant's convenience and his residence," Lalu
said.
On President Abdurrahman Wahid's allusion that the judges
presiding over the case were "not clean," Lalu said that he was
saddened by the President's remarks.
"The whole world is watching us... it would be just too stupid
and too careless for us to receive a bribe. We know we did our
best in handling this case," Lalu said.
Attorney General Marzuki Darusman confirmed last week that the
South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office would appeal to the Jakarta
High Court, saying that the district court's decision went
against the justice expected by the people. (ylt)