Soeharto's lawyers 'can be arrested'

Soeharto's lawyers 'can be arrested'

JAKARTA (JP): Observers and legal practitioners said on
Saturday that Soeharto's lawyers could be arrested for hampering
the investigation into the former president's alleged corruption
case.

The chairman of the Indonesian Bar Association (Ikadin),
Sudjono, said the Attorney General Marzuki Darusman had the
authority to put the lawyers under his office's custody due to
their noncooperative acts, including leaking Soeharto's medical
record.

"If Marzuki Darusman objects to the leakage, he could detain
the lawyers," Sudjono said after a seminar held by the University
of Indonesia's School of Law.

He added that the lawyers could be charged with leaking a
state secret for making the medical report public.

His statement came in the face of plans by the Attorney
General's Office to question the former ruler on Monday.

A team of lawyers representing Soeharto revealed on Wednesday
the medical records of their client and the result of a medical
reexamination carried out by the state-appointed doctors at Cipto
Mangunkusumo General Hospital.

Earlier, the Attorney General's Office announced that the
result of the state-sanctioned medical checkup was confidential.

Soeharto has twice failed to answer the summons from the
Attorney General's Office as his lawyers claimed he was medically
unfit to undergo questioning and had trouble completing his
sentences.

Sudjono said that two of Soeharto's lawyers were members of
Ikadin.

"Marzuki told me he would soon file a complaint regarding the
lawyers' behavior to Ikadin."

He added that Ikadin's honorary board could impose sanctions
on the two lawyers, ranging from a reprimand to a dismissal.

Sharing the same view, chairman of the Indonesian Advocates
Association (AAI) Yan Apul Girsang said that the honorary board
of the association was formulating measures to be taken against
members who were found to be in violation of the code of ethics.

Two of Soeharto's lawyers are AAI members.

Another speaker at the seminar, Bambang Widjojanto from the
Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), said
the Criminal Code and the Anticorruption Law No. 3/1971 allow
Marzuki to unveil lawyers who allegedly hamper investigations.

One of the Soeharto's lawyers, Juan Felix Tampubolon, told The
Jakarta Post that the medical report belonged to their client and
that it was his right to make it public.

"On the contrary, a person who reveals medical records without
the patient's approval is violating ethics," he said. (01)