'Tommy tried to bribe Gus Dur'

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A suspect confirmed on Tuesday that Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra had attempted to bribe former President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid in attempts to obtain a presidential pardon.

"Yes, there was such a plan. We'll hear about it in court and you can make your own conclusion," Raden Doddy Sumadi told reporters at police headquarters.

Doddy said he had arranged the controversial meetings between Abdurrahman and Tommy, the youngest son of former president Soeharto, at The Regent and the Hotel Borobudur in 2000. The meetings were reportedly held to negotiate the absolution of his 18-month prison sentence in the Goro-Bulog land scam graft.

"My position was crystal clear. I was the mediator to help arrange the meetings," Doddy asserted.

Earlier on Tuesday, Doddy was interrogated by police simultaneously along with Tommy and another suspect Abdullah Sidiq Muin, both of whom were accused by Tommy of blackmail and extortion.

Tommy's lawyer, Elza Syarief, said Doddy and Sidiq admitted that they had received the equivalent of Rp 15 billion in U.S. dollars from Tommy in a meeting in Jakarta on Oct. 19, 2000. But, they gave conflicting statements on how the money was distributed among them.

Doddy appeared visibly upset when he left the interrogation room and claimed in an emotional tone that he had become a "victim" of a conspiracy.

"The meetings (between Tommy and Gus Dur) were successfully arranged....so why am I now being treated like s***?" he shouted furiously.

Sidiq, the principal of At-tauhid Islamic boarding school in Kediri, East Java, refused to comment when reporters bombarded him with questions.

Meanwhile, Tommy was all smiles as he left the interrogation room, appearing relaxed with uncuffed hands as officers ushered him away. A detective even held an umbrella to protect Tommy from the drizzle.

Tommy is the prime suspect as the alleged mastermind of the murder -- just five days after Gus Dur was replaced -- of Supreme Court Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita who convicted him in the graft case.

Despite a strong indication of bribery, which by law should also implicate Tommy, the police had not yet given any indication that they would pursue such a course.

Many legal observers believed that the case, which was initiated by Tommy's lawyers, was merely a legal decoy to complicate the police investigation of Tommy by dragging other high-profile people into the case.