Soeharto's son returns to Attorney General's Office

JAKARTA (JP): The youngest son of former president Soeharto, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, reported to the Attorney General's Office on Wednesday for a third straight day of questioning in connection with a Rp 52.5 billion land scam.

Tommy arrived at the office at 9 a.m. with his lawyers H.M. Dault and Erman Umar. The questioning session ended seven and a half hours later, Antara reported.

"I knew nothing about the problems that followed after the land barter agreement between the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) and PT Goro Batara Sakti," Tommy told reporters, adding that he was no longer the president commissioner of Goro, a giant supermarket chain in which Tommy owned shares.

"So the matter has become the responsibility of my successors and other directors at that time," he said. The board of directors at the time was presided over by Ricardo Gelael, Tommy said.

His lawyers said Tommy was still being summoned as a witness and added that they still had no idea who the suspects in the case were. The investigation has focused on a contract Bulog signed to sell a property in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, to Goro. Under the exchange, the agency was to have received a 63 hectare plot of land in Marunda, North Jakarta, worth an estimated Rp 52.5 billion.

However, Bulog reportedly received only eight hectares of the promised land, for which it paid Rp 32.5 billion that should have been a Goro expense.

Tommy said that if the Attorney General has sufficient evidence he will be ready to be summoned as a suspect.

"But I don't see myself as having committed a crime. Everything was in accordance with the existing rules," he reiterated.

Commenting on his overseas travel ban, Tommy said he had asked for the ban to be revoked as a reward for his cooperation with the investigation.

"I want to help the office solve this matter quickly and I want to prove to them that I am a good witness. I therefore hope the ban will be revoked," he said. (edt)