Tommy's man hired me: Defendant

Tommy's man hired me: Defendant

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A defendant accused in the drive-by shooting of Supreme Court
Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita in July, confessed that he was
hired by an aide of Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra to carry out the
assassination.

However, the defendant, R. Maulawarman, 37, also known under
the alias Molla, denied that he had ever meet Tommy.

"I did not know Tommy personally, but his man, Frans, a
resident of Pinang Cipondoh area, Tangerang, contacted me," he
said during a hearing at the Central Jakarta District Court,
presided over by Judge Amiruddin Zakaria.

His admission of guilt surprised many in the audience. Even
his lawyer, Suhardi Somomoeljono, appeared shocked, and said that
Molla had never told attorneys about his planned admission of
guilt before the court.

"He asked me this morning (Monday) to tell the panel of judges
that he wanted to present his own defense," he told The Jakarta
Post, adding that Molla wrote his defense on a piece of paper.

The hearing was originally intended to allow the defense from
lawyers of Molla and another defendant to testify, Noval Hadad.

Both defendants face charges of premeditated murder which, as
stipulated in article 340 of the Criminal Code, carries the death
penalty.

"At that time, me, Noval, Alex and Mukti drove on two Yamaha
RX King motorbikes. Why did not the police arrest them?" Molla
asked in reference to the shooting incident.

Molla did not elaborate on the guilt of Alex and Mukti, but he
did admit that two of four men fatally shot the justice.

He also denied that he had taught Noval on how to use a gun as
stated in the indictment.

According to the indictment, Noval, who was sitting behind
Molla on a black Yamaha RX King, shot Syafiuddin with a black,
9-millimeter Beretta several times on July 26 last year.

A police spokesman, Sr.Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam maintained
that the assassination was carried out by four men on two
motorcycles. But eyewitnesses said that it was only two men who
opened fire.

Syafiuddin was shot on July 26, 2001 while driving his car to
work. He had sentenced Tommy in October 2000 to 18 months in jail
for corruption.

Meanwhile, the police expected on Monday to complete within
days the dossiers on Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra over his
alleged masterminding of the murder of Supreme Court Justice M.
Syafiuddin Kartasasmita after they were returned by the Jakarta
Prosecutors' Office.

City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said on
Monday that the police had actually filed the dossiers with the
Prosecutor's Office, which then returned them as the prosecutors
considered them incomplete.

"We had to insert some additional data into the dossiers which
was needed by the court in trying the murder case," said Anton.
He declined to elaborate.

According to Tommy's lawyer Elza Syarief and chief of
detectives for financial affairs Adj. Sr. Comr. Benny Mokalo,
Tommy was not interrogated over the murder case, but over the
extortion that allegedly involved Raden Dody Sumadi, who is known
as former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid's ally and
Muhammad Sidiq Muin, popularly known as Gus Dur's spiritual
adviser.

Observers warned earlier that the cases highlighted by Tommy's
lawyers might be intended to distract public attention from
Tommy's main cases as the former drag big names into the legal
arena.

Abdurrahman and his wife Sinta Nuriyah were summoned by police
as witnesses in the extortion case last week.

Anton said the police might find that the extortion case
turned into one of bribery committed by Tommy should the results
of the investigation lead in that direction.