Tommy's lawyer wants Ghalib to drop case

Tommy's lawyer wants Ghalib to drop case

JAKARTA (JP): The lawyer of Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, who
has been named a suspect in a land scam that caused the state Rp
96 billion in losses, wants the attorney general to drop the
charges against his client.

The lawyer, HM Dault, said on Saturday that he had mailed his
request to Attorney General Andi M. Ghalib through a letter dated
March 22.

He claimed in the letter that the land scam case was really a
civil case that had been forcibly turned into a criminal case.

"This case actually has a political background which should
not have been facilitated by the law," Dault was quoted by Antara
as saying.

Should the case still go to court, the country will witness
yet another incident in which the charges will be dropped and the
suspect freed of all charges, he said.

He cited the corruption case of Golkar legislator and
businessman Nurdin Halid in the South Sulawesi capital of
Ujungpandang. The district court there acquitted Nurdin, at the
request of prosecutors, who claimed there was a lack of evidence
to prove Halid embezzled Rp 115.77 billion of farmers' compulsory
savings from a local cooperative.

Therefore, Dault said, the prosecutors should have the courage
to say the truth "even though it's a bitter one".

It is precisely the right thing to do and it is not too late
for the prosecutors to drop Tommy's case, the lawyer said.

Tommy is the youngest son of former president Soeharto and a
businessman with a wide range of business.

Tommy and two other people, former chief of the State
Logistics Agency (Bulog) Beddu Amang and senior executive of
wholesaler PT Goro Batara Sakti, Ricardo Gelael, will be tried in
the South Jakarta Court soon for their alleged roles in the sale
of land belonging to Bulog in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.

The property was bought by Goro, the giant wholesaler in which
Tommy also held shares.

Under the deal struck between Goro and the agency, Bulog was
to receive a 63-hectare plot in Marunda, North Jakarta, worth an
estimated Rp 52.5 billion, in exchange for the Kelapa Gading
site.

However, Bulog received only eight hectares and paid Rp 32.5
billion for the land despite a contract obliging Goro to pick up
the bill.

In preparation of the trial, Ghalib on March 12 barred Tommy
from traveling outside of the city. A similar travel restriction
was previously imposed on the two other suspects.

According to lawyer Dault, the charges against his client
could be dropped because there was no land exchange transaction
and the state had lost nothing in the deal.

All funds allocated by the state had been used to take over a
plot in Marunda, North Jakarta. Bulog's office and warehouse
complex in Kelapa Gading still belongs to the agency, he argued.

Therefore, "although the dossiers (of Tommy's case) have been
handed over to the court, we still hope that the attorney general
will order the prosecutors to drop the charges because there has
been no state losses in the Goro case," Dault explained.

According to the attorney general's spokesman, R.J.
Soehandoyo, prosecutors must have strong evidence of the
suspects' roles in the case before determining to send the case
to court.

"In the meantime, the case should be tried in court,"
Soehandoyo said, adding that his office had yet to reply to
Tommy's lawyer's request. (bsr)