Will Tommy ever face the music?

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Will Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra ever be punished?

This is the question that is preoccupying the minds of many people following his arrest on Wednesday.

Tommy's arrest has undoubtedly become the hot topic of conversation across the country, but many have expressed pessimism about the legal process awaiting him, saying that the millionaire will in the end buy his freedom.

With all due respect to the country's law enforcers, people have good reason for doubting the bona fides of the government in bringing the most wanted man in the country to justice, experts say.

The public have seen a long and ridiculous legal process against Tommy. When what the public wanted was for him to be put in jail for his involvement in a graft case, in the end he was acquitted by the Supreme Court of all charges

And when other fugitives would have been shot in the leg for running away, he received a hug from the Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Jacoeb after his arrest on Wednesday.

Noted lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said that Indonesia's law enforcers were just "too nice" in their treatment of Tommy, who could actually be categorized as the most dangerous person in the country.

"The way they (law enforcers) have been treating him shows that justice and the judicial institutions in Indonesia belong to those who have the money and power," Todung told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

"The fact that the police held a joint press conference with Tommy, a fugitive, is solid proof of the degradation of police integrity. The public have every reason to have doubts about the legal process against him," he asserted.

Todung underlined that the country's officials had a wrong mind set, and continued to treat Tommy as a VIP, when actually he was a fugitive.

Political analyst Kusnanto Anggoro said: "It is difficult to even hope for a proper legal process against Tommy."

However, Todung said the country should be optimistic that one day the institutions of justice would belong to the people and not to those in power.

"Well, maybe the people's reaction won't affect the outcome of the legal process against Tommy. But, we must not stop being optimistic," he added.

But still, optimism alone is not enough, although prosecutors seem content to waste time by lodging a petition with the Supreme Court to overturn its ruling exonerating Tommy of corruption.

Bambang Widjojanto of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI) said the move would not put Tommy in jail as it was unknown in the country's legal system.

He said he could think of no precedent where a party had the right to seek the abrogation of a Supreme Court review panel's decision, even if an apparent miscarriage of justice had taken place.

On Thursday, state prosecutors submitted a request asking Chief Justice Bagir Manan to abrogate the court's decision exonerating Tommy of all charges due to the presence of several procedural defects.

The move was taken to ensure that Tommy would serve his 18- month jail sentence for his role in a land-swap scam that caused losses to the state as determined by another panel of Supreme Court justices in November of last year.

Bambang expressed his doubts that the Supreme Court would overturn the decision of its review panel.

"Although the prosecutors have all the right arguments, I'm afraid their request will be rejected by the Supreme Court because such a procedure is unrecognized in our law," he told journalists at his office.

He pointed out that there were two other more common ways to make sure Tommy served his sentence: a request to make the Supreme Court review panel's decision on Tommy non-executable due to legal flaws, or a request to annul the decision and order a rehearing due to a conflict of interest or attempts to pervert the course of justice.

The first option was also impossible, Bambang said, as the Jakarta Prosecutors' Office had executed the verdict by summoning the fugitive Tommy to accept it.

The remaining option was to seek a rehearing.

Todung, however, had another suggestion. The easiest way to get Tommy into jail, he said, would be prosecute him for contempt of court for defying the verdict of the court and going on the run.