Soeharto vs 'Time' to be heard on Sept. 9: Lawyer
JAKARTA (JP): Central Jakarta District Court will start the hearing of former president Soeharto's libel suit against U.S.- based Time magazine at 9 a.m. on Sept. 9, lawyer Juan Felix Tampubolon said on Monday.
"Time magazine will mainly have to provide grounds for publishing the cover story, which ruined my client's name," Tampubolon told The Jakarta Post.
He was referring to the magazine's May report, which claimed Soeharto and his children amassed a US$15 billion fortune during his 30-year rule.
"Time will have to prove something which does not exist. For instance, it will have to name the bank where Soeharto reportedly stored his money in."
The time and date of the hearing all refer to the number nine, which many believe, particularly people in most parts of Asia, to either be an indicator of good fortune or of terrible doom.
Separately, Time's lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said there was no single statement in the magazine's May report which considerably defamed the former president's reputation.
"I have local newspapers' clippings whose articles were harsher than what Time reported. There was nothing new in Time's article for its Indonesian readers. Everybody knows about Pak Harto. Many have written about it. So how can the Time articles be considered defamatory?" Todung told the Post.
"There will only be a hearing on Thursday. We have yet to establish whether Indonesian courts have jurisdiction over the case. So don't expect anything great."
Earlier, acting Attorney General Ismudjoko said his office could not complete the investigation on former president Soeharto by a promised deadline on Thursday, but said that if required, a hastily compiled report could be presented to President B.J. Habibie.
"We haven't completed our investigation but if (Minister of Justice) Pak Muladi wants me to present a report at Thursday's Cabinet meeting, we can rush our report ... but not our investigation," Ismudjoko said at his office on Friday.
Sources at the National Police Headquarters, who have been closely following the eight-month investigation, said the report would come up "with nothing against Soeharto".
"Soeharto is no fool. Whatever transaction he made, was legalized by the laws he formed himself. They included presidential decrees and presidential instructions," the sources said.
"Whenever Soeharto saw an opportunity to make money, he made the law first. Investigators may dig as deep as they want, but they will get a law at the bottom of it legalizing the transactions."
The sources said Ismudjoko's appointment as acting attorney general was meant to create an image that the ruling government had nothing to do with the investigation.
"But the question is, who put Ismudjoko in his position (as acting attorney general) now?"
"The report will ultimately state that there is no case against Pak Harto," the sources said, adding that the announcement will be made on Thursday.
The investigation of Soeharto began in June last year and was later reinforced by a decree of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), issued in its Special Session last November. (ylt)