Tommy's contempt of law sidelined
Tommy's contempt of law sidelined
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Evading conviction is a crime that Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala
Putra committed when he escaped imprisonment a year ago, but
police seem disinterested in pursuing this blatant contempt of
the law by focusing instead on other charges which, while no less
grave, have yet to be proven.
Legal experts are up in arms fearing that the police are
sending the wrong message by not pursuing the obvious offense
with more vigor, which could lead to Tommy's escape from
authorities go unpunished.
This has become all the more glaring because the government
has specifically instructed the police to pursue the contempt of
the law charge as one of the primary offenses, along with three
other cases the police are pursuing -- the murder of Supreme
Court Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, illegal possession of
arms and masterminding bomb attacks in the capital.
"By ignoring Tommy's time on the run, police are giving the
impression that such a crime was never committed," lawyer Luhut
M. Pangaribuan from the Indonesian Bar Association (APHI) told
The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
"It's a contradiction. The police were supposedly engaged in a
chase to catch him, long before they named Tommy a suspect for
other offenses.
"But since Tommy's capture, police have instead been focussing
on a number of vague accusations," Luhut charged.
Tommy initially fled arrest after being convicted of graft.
However, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction last month
in a controversial review.
During his year-long stint in hiding, police also alleged that
Tommy was involved in three other cases.
Bambang Widjojanto, chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid
Institute Foundation (YLBHI), maintains that the fact the Supreme
Court eventually overturned the conviction does not justify
Tommy's actions in fleeing the authorities.
Bambang said that he did not understand the reasoning behind
the strategy taken by the police in starting the investigation
with the most difficult-to-prove cases rather than the easiest
one.
"The police have to explain to the public that they have a
strong reason to do that," he told the Post.
Article 216 of the Criminal Code says that evading justice is
punishable with four months and two weeks imprisonment.
Though police claim to have solid evidence on the three cases
they are focusing on, conviction remains far from assured once it
goes to trial.
Police have not explained why they will not bring forward
Tommy's evasion of justice as a separate case and why they will
merely add it as a compounding factor against him in the other
three cases.
They seem confident of being able to pin Articles 340 and 341
for premeditated murder and Emergency Law No. 12/1951 for
weapons.
They carry a maximum penalty of death.
Prosecutor Antasari Azhar, head of South Jakarta District
Court, seemed to be washing his hands of the matter saying it was
up to the police who were currently running the show.
Prosecutors, however, have filed an appeal, albeit with
seemingly little legal precedence, for the Supreme Court to
review its decision to overturn Tommy's conviction in the graft
case.
Many fear that the public's already battered sense of justice
may deteriorate further if no conviction is eventually obtained
when such a simple opportunity lies open for the taking.
Opinion polls already show that the public fear a recurrence
of the legal folly that led to Tommy's escape a year ago.
Luhut said it was no wonder that the public had such little
faith in the proceedings after they were presented with scenes of
Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Jacoeb hugging the
country's most wanted man after his capture on Wednesday.
"If the police fail to probe Tommy's escape properly, then I
wonder what's behind all this," he remarked.
"Because it's funny to see how Tommy's cases always develop
into another issue, such as his meeting with Gus Dur, which I
think is only secondary to the main case."