Tommy's defense team pledges to resist summons

Tommy's defense team pledges to resist summons

JAKARTA (JP): The defense team of businessman Hutomo Mandala
Putra, alias Tommy, said on Wednesday that their client would not
appear at the South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office to fulfill the
summons for an execution of a Supreme Court ruling on Thursday.

They called such a measure "premature" and in violation of the
law.

L.M.M. Samosir, one of Tommy's lawyers, said that by carrying
out the execution of the ruling on their client, the prosecutors
disobeyed South Jakarta District Court's ruling which had ordered
the postponement of the execution on Tommy, the youngest son of
former president Soeharto, who was sentenced to 18-months
imprisonment by the Supreme Court on Sept. 22 for corruption.

"Our client rejects execution of the ruling only until there
is a definite response or a presidential decree over Tommy's
appeal for presidential pardon," Samosir told journalists, while
citing that the team has sent a letter to the Head of the South
Jakarta Prosecutor's Office Antasari Azhar, expressing their
complaint.

His colleague, Nudirman Munir, said Tommy would accept the
decision of President Abdurrahman Wahid whether he rejected or
endorsed the appeal for pardon of their client, convicted in an
unlawful land swap deal between his firm, PT Goro Batara Sakti,
and the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) in 1995.

"Tommy will obey whatever is the President's decision on his
appeal for pardon. So, what's the use of executing the Supreme
Court verdict just because we have filed a proposal for a review
into his case.

"They (the prosecutors) are just showing off and have
abandoned legal principles," Nudirman said.

Separately in the day, President Abdurrahman hinted that he
would respond to Tommy's pardon appeal later this week.

Abdurrahman has repeatedly said that he would reject the
appeal.

The Supreme Court overturned on Sept. 22 a lower court ruling
in 1999 which exonerated Tommy of corruption charges in the Rp
95.4 billion land exchange deal between Bulog and PT Goro.

The Supreme Court instead sentenced Tommy to 18 months in jail
and ordered him to return Rp 30.7 billion in state losses.

The verdict was issued only days after Abdurrahman gave the
order to the police to apprehend Tommy, whom he believed to be
involved in the recent bombing incidents in Jakarta.

Spokesman to the Supreme Court, Pranowo, shared the opinion of
Tommy's defense team that the prosecutors should obey the South
Jakarta District Court judges' ruling on the postponement of the
execution.

"As long as the appeal for pardon is in process, the
prosecutor cannot execute Tommy's sentence," he told journalists
at his office on Wednesday.

However, Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said that the
decision to execute the Supreme Court's verdict would not violate
any law or judges' ruling.

"If there was a ruling from the district court, prohibiting
the prosecutors from executing the ruling, we will obey it.

"But, as there is none, we'll execute the Supreme Court's
verdict tomorrow (Thursday) because it's our duty to do so as
stipulated in the Criminal Code Procedures (KUHAP)," he told
journalists.

Marzuki was referring to Paragraph 1 of Article 268 of KUHAP
which stipulates that an appeal from a convict for a review into
his/her case cannot postpone the execution of the verdict.

Meanwhile, Antasari Azhar said he had prepared contingency
measures in anticipation of Tommy's failure to meet the deadline
on Thursday.

"But, I cannot tell you. Let's just wait and see what we will
do tomorrow."

The prosecutor's office also requested the district court to
annul its ruling on the postponement of the execution, which was
granted to Tommy as the latter filed for the appeal for pardon on
Oct. 3, Antasari said.

But head of South Jakarta District Court Lalu Mariyun said he
could not grant the prosecutor's request as the ruling on the
postponement of the execution was part and parcel of Tommy's
appeal for pardon. (01/bby)