'Time' magazine sticks to its reports: Lawyer

'Time' magazine sticks to its reports: Lawyer

JAKARTA (JP): Time magazine will stick to its guns on its May
24 report on the US$15 billion fortune of the Soehartos and
therefore will not make any correction to it, its lawyers said
on Thursday.

The weekly's lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, told a media
conference that his client "is ready to face any lawsuit" lodged
by the country's former president or his family.

"My client stands by the fact that the transfer (worth $9
billion made in the Soeharto name from a Swiss bank to a bank
account in Austria) really happened. But where the money has gone
now, I don't know," Todung said.

In its May 24 Asian edition, Time reported that the transfer
was made shortly after Soeharto's resignation in May last year.

A few days after the U.S.-based magazine hit the newspaper
stands, Soeharto told television stations, the Attorney General's
Office and the police as well, that the report was totally false.

Five of his six children, who have been summoned for
clarification of the report at the Attorney General's Office
after their father, also denied the amount of their individual
fortunes as stated by the magazine.

According to Todung, the magazine would be, of course, unable
to reveal the name of the Austrian bank which it said had
received the Soeharto money transfer, as it would lead to the
disclosure of the identity of its sources, who had asked to
remain anonymous.

The Soeharto versus Time case, the lawyer said, was an
interesting and rare case, not only because it dealt with the
country's former strongman, but it is expected to give a good
"lesson" for Indonesian courts in dealing with press-related
crimes.

"United States courts have long protected the press and even
supported the idea that officials, who are supposedly transparent
in carrying out their duties, can't file lawsuits against the
press," he said.

In the U.S., the case would be brought to trial if it could be
proved there was malicious intent on the part of the media.

"If the publication runs a story and really didn't know that
it's incorrect, then it can't be charged for that kind of false
reporting," he said.

Todung, a noted lawyer in Indonesia, also claimed Soeharto's
move of filing a lawsuit against his client on Wednesday at the
National Police Headquarters was not serious.

He said that Soeharto's lawyers must have forgotten the fact
that Time magazine was based in New York and has its
representative office for Asia in Hong Kong, meaning that
Soeharto would have to lodge the lawsuit against the weekly
either in the States or Hong Kong.

"So, I have to say that all these legal efforts are not
serious. The alleged crimes were committed in Hong Kong and not
here," Todung said.

When asked to comment on Todung's allegation, Soeharto's
lawyer Juan Felix Tampubolon fought back, saying that it was
Time's lawyers who did not really master the law but only
attempted to make excuses for the magazine's failure to produce
supporting evidence as required by Soeharto.

"When Time's alleged defamatory and libelous reports were also
distributed in this country and people here could read them, then
the insult of libel against Soeharto already took place here,"
Juan defended.

"So it's not necessary for us to go to Hong Kong or New York
to seek the rights as we strongly believe that the crimes
occurred here," he said.

Separately, at the Attorney General's Office here on Thursday,
Siti Hutami "Mamiek" Endang Adiningsih, Soeharto's youngest
daughter, met the office summons for questioning over her
estimated $30 million wealth as reported by the magazine.

"Time has indiscriminately made reports about Mamiek," Juan,
the lawyer who also accompanied her, said.

He insisted that none of the items written in the reports were
correct.

Mamiek herself refused to talk with the reporters. After the
five-hour questioning, she rushed to a waiting green Tosca VW
Caravel.

The 34-year-old Mamiek was the fifth of Soeharto's children
summoned for questioning by the office following the magazine's
report.

Her elder sister Siti Hediati Harijadi, 40, is scheduled for
questioning on Friday.

Time reported that Mamiek has stakes in several of her
siblings' companies and has engaged in the $500 million
reclamation project in the North Jakarta coastal area.

"She only has a plot of land with a building on it at Jl.
Cendana No. 17 here," Juan said, referring to her client's
current residence in the Menteng district of Central Jakarta.

Other property of Mamiek's includes a 264-hectare Mekarsari
orchard in Cileungsi, West Java, as reported by Time, but was
claimed by Juan as belonging to a foundation in which Mamiek's
name was not registered.

From Vienna, Minister of Justice Muladi said Austrian and
Swiss governments have expressed their willingness to help the
Indonesian government trace the alleged $9 billion transfer.

"We've pushed the Swiss and Austrian governments to support us
and give assistance to our country in efforts to solve money
laundering cases, including those connected with former president
Soeharto's alleged wealth," Muladi told Antara.

Muladi, accompanied by Attorney General Andi M. Ghalib, left
the country on Sunday for a mission of hunting and recovering
Soeharto's alleged transfer.

"The two governments also reiterated that a bank's secrecy is
not absolute," he said.

The Indonesian government has yet to make official letters to
Austria and Switzerland but drafts were now being examined by
representatives of the two countries, Muladi said.

Meanwhile, the state-run television station TVRI reported last
night from Vienna that a local newspaper had made an
investigative report starting last year on the possibility of
Soeharto and his family's stashed wealth in the country.

The result was that there were no bank accounts registered
under his name in the country.

"It's likely that the fortune is kept in South America, Cyprus
or the U.S.," the television said. (emf)