'Witness paid to lie in Tommy case'

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta Police detained on Monday a security guard for alleged perjury during the trial of former president Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra.

Suspect Rahmat Hidayat, who used to work at the Soeharto family's Cemara Apartment in Menteng, Central Jakarta, had admitted that he was paid Rp 2 million by Tommy's lawyers, City Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said.

In return, he made false statements and withdrew his earlier statements to police, Anton said.

Rahmat, who was arrested on Sunday at his house in Tangerang, made the confession with the presence of his lawyer Nudirman Munir, who once represented Tommy.

Anton said police were still investigating who exactly bribed Rahmat.

Asked if he planned to question any of Tommy's lawyers -- Elza Syarief, Juan Felix Tampubolon and M. Assegaf -- Anton did not give a yes or no answer.

"The police want to know everything behind all of this, about why he retracted his earlier statements (which implicated Tommy)," he said.

He also said that police would also question Laimin and Tatang Somantri, former security guards at Cemara Apartment who also testified in Tommy's trial.

During the court hearing on Wednesday, the three witnesses retracted their statements made to police and denied that the signatures on the statements were theirs.

In the police dossiers, they said that the firearms that were found in Cemara Apartment belonged to Tommy.

Anyone who gives a false testimony in a criminal court is subject to a nine-month jail term.

Tommy is being tried at the Central Jakarta District Court for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, the murder of Supreme Court Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita and fleeing from justice. Syafiuddin was one of the judges who convicted Tommy of graft.

Tommy's chief defense lawyer Elza called a press conference later on Monday to deny that the lawyers had ever bribed or threatened witnesses.

"The accusation that we paid witnesses is not true. How can we reach them?" she said.

This was not the first time that Elza was alleged to have been involved in a bribery case. Last year, Syafiuddin's second wife told a TV station that Elza offered to pay Syafiuddin Rp 200 million.

Elza denied that report, too.

Early in 2001, when Tommy was still a fugitive, the police named Tommy's other lawyer, Tampubolon, as a suspect for lying about Tommy's whereabouts.

But there was no follow up to the case.

Legal observers believe that defendants or their lawyers can influence witnesses due to the lack of witness protection laws here. They might threaten the witnesses or pay them to give testimony that will favor the defendants.

"The lack of the witness protection laws is a poor reality amid the country's attempts at legal reform," said noted lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis.

The idea was shared by Topo Santoso, a lecturer of the University of Indonesia's School of Law, and Irianto Subiakto of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute.

At a court hearing three weeks ago, Sainah, a former housemaid in Cemara Apartments, told the court that the firearms in the apartment belonged to Tommy. She is the only witness who did not retract her statement about Tommy's involvement in the crime.

Witnessed by the judges, prosecutors, lawyers and visitors, Tommy "threatened" Sainah by saying, "For the sake of the witness' safety, I would not question her..."

Presiding judge Amiruddin Zakaria did not warn the defendant about his statement.