Soeharto to face trial for alleged graft on state funds
JAKARTA (JP): State prosecutors are ready to file charges against former president Soeharto for misusing Rp 1.4 trillion (around US$155 million) of state funds that have gone to his seven tax-free charity foundations.
Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said on Wednesday however that 79-year-old Soeharto will be tried in his capacity as the owner of the foundations, thus dismissing previous speculation that the former ruler would be accused of abusing his power to amass wealth through the foundations.
"As the president at that time, Soeharto had the right to issue such decrees and regulations (to raise funds)," he told journalists after the final expose of Soeharto's graft case which also marked the end of an eight-month long investigation into the case.
The high-profile case was reopened in December soon after Marzuki found new evidence of Soeharto's abuse of power in issuing various regulations to amass massive wealth through his foundations.
Until last year, state-owned enterprises and highly profitable companies were obliged to donate a certain percentage of their net income to the foundations.
The dossier is now in the hands of Director of Prosecutions Mochtar Arifin, who is slated to hand over the dossier to the Jakarta Provincial Prosecutor's Office on Thursday.
On Aug. 2, the prosecutor's office is expected to file the case with the South Jakarta District Court, where most of the evidence and witnesses in the case are situated.
Director of Investigation Ris Pandapotan Sihombing said that Soeharto is primarily charged with violating article 1(a) of Law No. 3/1971 on Corruption Crimes for deliberately enriching himself at the state's expense.
Soeharto is also subject to secondary charges as stipulated in the corruption law article 1(b), where someone may be convicted for abusing power so as to cause losses to the state, Sihombing said.
The crimes carry a maximum life sentence and a minimum 20 years of imprisonment, plus a maximum fine of Rp 30 million.
Antasari Azhar, a state prosecutor handling the case, had earlier said the investigation process would only consider Soeharto's involvement as the foundations' owner "for violating the charity foundations' statutes."
Part of the foundations' funds were used for business concerns.
Two of the foundations, namely Dharmais and Dana Karya Abadi, had each "entrusted" a Rp 225 billion fund to the Nusamba Group owned by timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob" Hasan which was used to build the paper company PT Kiani Kertas and the pulp company PT Kiani Lestari.
Chairmen of the foundations admitted that the income from the shares in these companies were used to perpetuate the funds' resources.
Antasari said 76 witnesses will be presented at the trial out of the 140 witnesses questioned this far.
Separately on Wednesday, Teten Masduki, chairman of the watchdog Indonesian Corruption Watch, doubted the seriousness of Marzuki in securing Soeharto's conviction, saying such obscure charges could benefit Soeharto.
"I'm afraid this is the way in which Marzuki is going to let Soeharto slip the noose as the ones who are most responsible in the case must be those who used the money or the foundation executives themselves," he said on the sidelines of a seminar here.
"The government should admit it doesn't have the political capacity to ensnare Soeharto. Just ask Soeharto to confess his crimes. If he refuses, force him by threatening that the state protection afforded to him will be withdrawn," he added. (bby)