Tommy finds time to testify

Tommy finds time to testify

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After seven no-shows citing a variety of reasons, convicted felon
Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the youngest son of former
president Soeharto, testified on Monday at the Central Jakarta
District Court in the extortion trial of Islamic boarding school
head Abdullah Sidiq Muin.

Tommy, who was escorted to the court from Gatot Subroto Army
Hospital where a team of 10 doctors had conducted a medical
checkup in the past week, told the courtroom that the real
culprit in the extortion case, Raden Dodi Sumadi, must be tried
immediately.

Sporting a Hawaiian shirt, black trousers and leather sandals,
Tommy looked in good condition, although doctors had diagnosed
him with a tumor in the eye and a stomach ulcer.

He was tightly guarded by police and prison guards outside the
courthouse, while journalists and visitors passed through metal
detectors to enter the courtroom.

"I don't know Kyai Sidiq, and never did business with him. It
was Dodi who claimed he could get me out of the legal tangle I
was in," Tommy told the packed courtroom, referring to the
defendant by his Islamic title.

Tommy added that Dodi, who claimed to be a close ally of then
president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, said he could arrange a
meeting with Gus Dur to discuss presidential clemency for the 18-
month conviction Tommy had received for corruption.

For his services, Dodi charged Tommy Rp 15 billion (US$1.78
million) and shared the money with Sidiq and another Islamic
boarding school head, Noer Muhammad Iskandar SQ.

Dodi's share was reportedly split into three equal parts and
distributed to the Puan Amal Hayati Foundation, owned by Gus
Dur's wife Sinta Nuriyah, Sidiq's At-Tauhid Islamic Boarding
School in Kediri, East Java, and to pay for expenses incurred by
the meeting.

Tommy later discovered that the foundation was fictitious.

"Dodi said if I failed to provide the money, I would go to
jail immediately and all the corruption charges against my family
would proceed," he said.

He paid the money, but his appeal for clemency was rejected.
Tommy was on the run for over a year before his arrest in
November 2001.

Tommy is serving out a 15-year prison term at maximum-security
Batu Penitentiary on Nusakambangan Island, Central Java, for
illegal possession of arms and masterminding the contract killing
of Supreme Court Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, who had
sentenced him over a separate graft case in 2000.

Although investigation into the Tommy-Sidiq-Dodi graft case
began in 2001, the Sidiq's trial began only last October. Dodi is
still at large, but police said his case file had been submitted
to the prosecutors' office.

Speaking after the trial, Sidiq said he had fallen victim of a
conspiracy that had pitted him against Tommy. He also said he
would return all the money he had made from the deal if the court
ordered him to do so.

After hearing testimony from Wahyu Yuwono -- a Kediri Police
officer who had accompanied Sidiq while he withdrew the bribe
money from a local bank -- presiding judge Saparudin Hasibuan
adjourned the trial until Feb. 24.

Tommy was flown back to the prison island immediately after
the court session.