Suharto's son found guilty of ordering judge's murder

AN Indonesian court yesterday found the youngest son of former dictator Suharto guilty of paying two hit men to murder a Supreme Court justice and sentenced him to 15 years in jail.

The murder trial was considered a test of post-Suharto Indonesia's ability to overhaul a notoriously corrupt judicial system.

"The defendant has been proven guilty of all the charges," Presiding Judge Amiruddin Zakaria said.

In addition to murder, Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy, was found guilty of illegal weapons possession and fleeing justice.

Another member of the five-judge panel, Andi Samsan Nganro, said Tommy paid $11,000 to the two assailants and ordered them to kill the judge who had sentenced him to a prison term for graft. "It is true that the defendant instructed them [the hit men] to commit a criminal act and in fact the two carried it out," Nganro said. He said the handgun used to kill the judge belonged to Tommy.

With the defendant absent from the courtroom and his attorneys walking out in protest, the five-judge panel began reading the verdict yesterday despite defence pleas for a delay.

Court proceedings were postponed only temporarily when Tommy said he was sick and asked to see a doctor at his prison cell.

The verdict came after a four-month trial marked by frequent courtroom outbursts by the defendant, witnesses recanting their stories and the brief detention of a defence attorney for allegedly bribing witnesses.

"The sentence is too light," said Solikin, a street vendor outside the courtroom, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. "He should have been sentenced to at least 20 years."

Tommy has been convicted of ordering the assassination of a Supreme Court Justice, Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, who sentenced him to prison in a graft case in September 2000.

The justice was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle one year ago yesterday. The assassins have already been given life sentences. Tommy denied involvement in the murder.

Judge Zakaria rejected pleas by the defence team to postpone the verdict until Tommy could be present. His six lawyers responded by hastily leaving the courtroom.

"We think our presence in the courtroom without the defendant is useless," defence attorney Juan Felix Tampubolon said outside. "It is clear that the judge's decision to continue the hearing has violated the defendant's rights."

Applause broke out in the courtroom when Zakaria rejected the defence plea and began reading the verdict sheet.

Earlier, Zakaria read a doctor's report confirming Tommy had a stomach ache and headache.

About 400 policemen carrying batons and handguns patrolled in and around the packed courtroom, where more than 100 people gathered to hear the verdict. About 200 people, many of them Tommy's supporters, gathered outside.

One man said he had been paid $5 to show support for Tommy.

During Suharto's 32-year reign, Tommy was said to control a business empire worth $800 million. He and other members of the first family were considered untouchable and his trial was widely seen as a barometer of Indonesia's progress in bringing the rich and powerful under the judicial system.