'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)