Tommy seeks President's pardon

JAKARTA (JP): In a clever move to avoid the immediate execution of the Supreme Court's ruling that he be jailed for 18 months over corruption charges, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the youngest son of former president Soeharto, formally filed an appeal for clemency to President Abdurrahman Wahid on Tuesday.

"What we are now doing is just making use of the existing legal loophole for Tommy to escape the execution of the Supreme Court's verdict," Erman Umar, a member of Tommy's team of defense lawyers, told journalists.

Another lawyer, L.M.M. Samosir, however, said that they might also file an appeal for the President's pardon, amid fear that the President would reject the appeal for clemency.

"We fear that the clemency appeal would be rejected by the President, considering that the latter had once ordered the police to arrest our client for a different case," Samosir said.

The appeal for presidential clemency, along with the appeal for a postponement of the execution of the Supreme Court's verdict, was filed in the morning by Tommy to the South Jakarta District Court. Assisted by his team of defense lawyers, Tommy then moved to the South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office to hand over copies of the two appeals.

While insisting that his client had not caused any losses to the state, Erman said the lawyers would soon appeal for a review of the case.

"Filing an appeal for presidential clemency does not mean that we immediately accept the Supreme Court's ruling that our client is guilty. We plan to submit an appeal for a review of the case as soon as possible," he said, while citing that the team had six months to provide new evidence of Tommy's innocence before submitting the review appeal.

The Supreme Court overturned the South Jakarta District Court's ruling in October 1999, which exonerated Tommy and his business associate Ricardo Gelael of all charges. The Court decided on Tuesday last week that he and Ricardo were guilty of causing losses to the state in a Rp 95.4 billion (US$11.2 million) land exchange deal with State Logistics Agency (Bulog) in 1995.

Unlike Tommy, Ricardo filed the appeal for presidential clemency on Monday.

South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office chief Antasari Azhar has warned Tommy to appear at his office on Wednesday morning at the latest.

Tommy failed to obey the first summons on Monday, claiming that he had yet to receive a copy of the Supreme Court's ruling. A copy of the ruling was delivered to Tommy's residence in the Menteng area, Central Jakarta, later on Monday.

Both Erman and Samosir said the team had yet to discuss whether Tommy should repay around Rp 30.6 billion in state losses as ordered in the Supreme Court's verdict.

"The clemency and the obligation to recover the state losses are not included in one package. We'll pay the Rp 10 million fine, but have not decided whether to repay the state loss," Samosir said.

In the appeal for presidential clemency, copies of which were made available to journalists on Tuesday, Tommy stated that he, as the commissioner of wholesaler PT Goro Batara Sakti, had not been prudent in monitoring the process of the land exchange deal.

"I had no intention to violate anything during the deal, but as a human, who always make mistakes, I, either as a person or as PT Goro commissioner, sincerely admit misdemeanor and a lack of control," he said.

"I've been declared guilty in the Supreme Court's ruling and have been sentenced to 18 months in jail. I ask for forgiveness and mercy from the President."

However, when asked by journalists whether he admitted guilt in the case and whether he would recover the state losses as has been done by Ricardo, Tommy simply said: "We'll see".

Separately, chief of the South Jakarta District Court, Lalu Mariyun, said on Tuesday that he had no idea about Tommy's defense team's plans to extend an appeal for review of the Supreme Court's verdict.

"He personally came to meet me, along with lawyer Bob R.E. Nasution, on Tuesday morning and extended the appeal for presidential clemency. I don't know anything about a proposal to get the case reviewed by the Supreme Court," Lalu told reporters.

He added that the leniency appeal can be considered as proof of Tommy's criminal act.

"With the proposal, he is saying sorry and admitting to his mistakes... which is why he is asking the President to show him some mercy," Lalu said.

A jail term awarded by a court cannot be executed if the defendant requests, on the basis of presidential clemency, that the verdict not be executed, according to Paragraph 1 of Article 3 of the 1950 Presidential Amnesty Law.

Meanwhile, a clerk to the South Jakarta District Court M. Yusuf said on Tuesday that his office has endorsed both appeals requesting clemency from the President.

"To my knowledge, the court has accepted the appeals. We just have to wait for the District Court's chief to sign the endorsement," Yusuf told The Jakarta Post, adding that the court would then forward the clemency appeal to the President through the Supreme Court.

Later in the day, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said the President's decision whether to pardon Tommy or not could be made without considering the Supreme Court's recommendation.

"The President could reject Tommy's appeal for clemency even though the Court recommends that the President give his pardon," Yusril, said on Tuesday after a meeting at the House of Representatives. (bby/jun/ylt)