Tommy's prison term cut by Supreme Court

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Supreme Court acceded on Friday to a request for a sentence review submitted by Hutomo "Tommy' Mandala Putra, the youngest son of former president Soeharto, cutting the original prison sentence to 10 years.

Tommy initially received a 15-year sentence after he was found guilty of storing illegal weapons and explosives, and ordering the murder of Supreme Court Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, who was a member of the judicial panel that had given Tommy a prison term for graft.

The Supreme Court's verdict prompted the Attorney General Office (AGO) to say he would seek an explanation from the court.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan was quoted by Antara as saying the court panel reviewing the case had agreed that Tommy was indeed guilty of the charges laid against him.

He did not elaborate as to why the Supreme Court had slashed

Bagir, who chaired the review panel, added that the time served by Tommy to date would be deducted from the new sentence.

Tommy was sent to prison in July 2002.

Currently being held in the Batu Penitentiary in the Central Java city of Cilacap, he submitted a petition for a review to the Supreme Court in 2003.

It was reported that Tommy presented 13 new pieces of evidence in support of his review request, including five witnesses, to the Cilacap District Court, whose jurisdiction takes in Batu prison.

The new evidence was first reviewed in July 2003 by the Cilacap court. Prosecutors said the new evidence was not admissible and failed to introduce any new mitigating factors.

The witnesses were a cleaning boy at Tommy's Cemara Apartments, Asep Sarifudin, Cemara Apartments manager Beni M. Robani, PT Mampang Nugraha Prima staff member Renaldi, housemaid Slamet Sukma Jaya and forensic expert Abdul Munim Idris from the University of Indonesia.

Tommy's lawyers hoped that the witnesses would convince the court that Tommy had never kept weapons in his apartment.

The cleaning boy told the Cilacap court that there had been no weapons stored in Tommy's residence, while the forensic expert said that hair and nail samples found in the apartment belonged to someone whose blood type was different from Tommy's.

The case was later forwarded to the Supreme Court.

AGO spokesperson R.J. Soehandojo said that his office had yet to receive an official notification of the Supreme Court's verdict.

He said prosecutors would normally tolerate a one-third reduction in a prison term, but quickly added that they would still seek explanations from the Supreme Court as to why it had granted the reduction.

"We will wait first before making any legal moves. But it is possible that prosecutors might want to file a petition for a further review of the Supreme Court's decision," said Soehandojo.