Soehartos puts London homes on market: Report

Soehartos puts London homes on market: Report

JAKARTA (Agencies): Relatives of former president Soeharto are
selling three lavish London properties in a move which could be
linked to the corruption probe Soeharto faces back home, AFP
reported on Tuesday.

Quoting The Independent daily's report on Tuesday, the news
agency said the properties in upmarket areas of the city had been
put on the market for a combined total of more than 11 million
(US$17.6 million).

In Indonesia, an inquiry is underway to determine how Soeharto
and his family amassed their huge fortune, estimated by United
States magazine Forbes in its July 1998 edition to be worth some
$4 billion, a figure Soeharto has called ridiculous.

According to The Independent, one property is available for
some 8 million, down from 9.5 million. Another house, used by
the family servants, is being offered for nearly 2 million and a
third is on sale for 1.4 million.

The family is also believed to own another three properties in
and around London, but it was not clear if they were also on the
market, the report added.

Last September in Jakarta, researcher George Junus Aditjondro
from Australia's Newcastle University said that among the
family's overseas properties were five houses in London owned by
three of Soeharto's six children -- Sigit Hardjojudanto, Siti
Hardijanti Rukmana and Siti Hediyati Prabowo -- five houses in
the United States, several houses in Bermuda and the Cayman
Islands and a sprawling ranch in New Zealand owned by Soeharto's
youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra.

He also cited a forest concession in Suriname controlled by
Soeharto's half brother, Raden Notosoewito, a luxury cruiser
berthed in Darwin, Australia, belonging to Tommy and several gas
shipping companies owned by Bambang, Sigit and Tommy in
Singapore. Soeharto's eldest daughter, he said, owned the
operational rights to 300 kilometers of toll roads in Malaysia,
the Philippines, Myanmar and China.

Soeharto, who has scoffed at reports that he built up a
fortune during his 32 years in power, stepped down last May 21.

Soeharto's lawyers filed legal papers with the Attorney
General's Office last Thursday demanding that the inquiry into
Soeharto's alleged corruption and abuse of power be stopped.

Two days earlier, the House of Representatives Commission I
for political affairs pressed controversial Attorney General Andi
M. Ghalib to speed up the probe by naming Soeharto as a suspect
instead of only a witness.