Tommy may be under detention for at least another 17 months

Tiarma Siboro and Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

If police and prosecutors keep their promise to execute the Supreme Court's legal opinion on Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra's sentencing, former president Soeharto's youngest son could spend at least 17 months in detention even before being convicted in a trial.

The 17 months comprises the 11 months the Supreme Court has instructed him to serve for a graft conviction and a total of six months police are allowed to detain him for the purpose of interrogation in the three crimes he is being charged with.

His incarceration could be extended further once police hand over the case dossiers to prosecutors who are allowed to detain a suspect for 50 days for each of the alleged offenses.

News of Tommy's likely extended stay behind bars came after police and prosecutors on Friday affirmed their commitment to execute the Supreme Court's opinion that Tommy must undergo his conviction in the Goro-Bulog land scam.

The Supreme Court said that despite eventually overturning the case, Tommy should have served his prison sentence in the first place.

It is estimated that Tommy must serve 11 months in jail, equivalent to the time when orders for his conviction on the graft charges were issued in Nov. 2000 to the time of a decision by a Supreme Court' panel that overturned the conviction in October.

Tommy was initially sentenced to 18-months imprisonment for graft.

But police insisted that Tommy would not even begin to serve his conviction for graft until police have fully completed their investigation.

Police are currently building three separate cases to charge Tommy with: the murder of Supreme Court Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, illegal possession of arms and masterminding bomb attacks.

"Police have 120 days to complete the investigation into Tommy's alleged murder of Syafiuddin and illegal possession of firearms," Jakarta Police deputy spokesman Comr. Alex Mandalika said.

He added that the dossiers on the two cases would be handed to prosecutors on Tuesday.

"After handing over the two dossiers we'll continue to investigate Tommy over the remaining charges," Alex said.

Police base their right to detain Tommy for 60 days for each case against him on Article 24 of the Criminal Code Procedures which states that police can detain a suspect for 20 days followed by a 40 day extension.

Alex revealed that police and the South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office had reached "an informal consensus" that Tommy would undergo the 11-month prison term for graft "pending the completion of police's interrogation."

Head of the South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office Antasari, separately confirmed the police statement saying that "we are going to let police complete their investigation."

Chief Justice Bagir Manan had also earlier stated that Tommy's current detention would not reduce the term he had to serve for the graft conviction.