Top figures at risk feel unthreatened, vow to uphold law

JAKARTA (JP): All officials targeted by Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra Soeharto, the youngest son of former President Soeharto, revealed on Tuesday that they were not really affected by the death threat.

Supreme Court chief Bagir Manan told reporters at his office on Tuesday that any attempt to intimidate justices would be fruitless as they (the justices) would remain determined to try every legal case objectively.

"We're really concerned with the situation, as justices who have handed down legal verdicts do not deserve to be treated like this. And if the threat is aimed at intimidating us, then it just won't work. We'll continue doing our job objectively," Bagir said.

Bagir further revealed that the police began guarding them following the murder of Supreme Court Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita on July 26.

Syafiuddin, who sentenced Tommy to 18 months in jail last year for corruption, was assassinated by four men riding two motorcycles while driving to work at the Supreme Court from his residence in Sunter, North Jakarta.

The police announced to the media on Monday night, after raiding a house and an apartment allegedly used by Tommy's men to launch their recent bombing campaign, that Tommy had also made a list of officials, including People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais and the House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tanjung and a number of justices, as targets to be killed.

During the raids, the police confiscated, among other items, some fake documents, bombs, dynamite, rifles, mobile phones, dozens of guns. They also arrested two men identified as Ferry Ukom and Dedi Sutaedi Yusuf and a woman identified as Hetty Siti Hartika. Tommy himself is still at large.

Bagir is not mentioned in the list, but he confessed to have received a death threat recently from a group of people he did not know.

Outgoing Justice R. Sunu Wahadi said that he became worried about the death threat after the police briefed the media on Monday night.

"The night after my colleague, the late Syafiuddin, was killed by four men, my child received a phone call from a man who said that I would soon be buried too. Another threat came from a man, also by phone, saying that he was going to blow my house up. But I just ignored it," Sunu told reporters at his office.

Another justice, Paulus Lotulung, said he was wondering why he was among Tommy's targets as he had not received any death threat before: "I only knew that Tommy planned to kill me after watching television last night. I'm not among the justices who sentenced Tommy to jail," Paulus said.

Paulus further added that Tommy might have planned to kill him because he had rejected an appeal filed by Tommy's automotive company PT Timor Putra Nasional last November regarding their responsibility to pay a tax debt of Rp 3.2 trillion (US$336 million) to the government.

But Paulus was quick to add that he was not afraid of such threats as he believed that, "God will protect His followers."

Separately, politicians Amien Rais of the National Mandate Party (PAN) and Akbar Tandjung of the Golkar Party, said they were not going to request additional security despite the fact that they were included on Tommy's list.

"I'm not sure whether Tommy wants to kill me. I have only heard from a certain newspaper today that I was among his (Tommy's) targets. He has no reason to kill me as there's nothing wrong with my relationship with the Soeharto family," Akbar said, as quoted by Antara.

Amien admitted that Soeharto's family might have a motive to kill him because he had campaigned for reform and was extremely critical of Soeharto's authoritarian rule."

Meanwhile, City Governor Sutiyoso admitted that he had also received a death threat from allegedly the same people who killed Syafiuddin.

"I saw my picture among items seized by the police from the suspects. I looked handsome in the picture. I almost did not recognize myself," Sutiyoso told reporters, after visiting city police headquarters.

He did not explain why he had become a target of the group. However, he admitted that he and his family had earlier received death threats, which had caused him to move his daughter to another school. (tso/jun)