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)