Tommy Suharto’s Remission Questioned
Thursday, 02 November, 2006 | 13:26 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Controversy over the conditional release of Hutomo Mandala Putra a.k.a. Tommy Suharto, the defendant in the murder case of Supreme Court Judge Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, continues.

One example of this is that Rudy Satrio, a law observer from the University of Indonesia, questions the criteria of remission received by Tommy.

“The requirements that resulted in his receiving remission must be explained transparently. What kind of good behavior can result in a person being granted this amount of remission,” said Rudy yesterday (1/11).

Rudy said that officially there are two categories of remission and the calculation is based on provisions.

However, so far the general public does not know the calculation nor the basis of imprisonment reduction.

Prior to this, a law observer from Gajah Mada University, Denny Indrayana, also said he considered that the remission received by Tommy was excessive.

According to him, in Indonesia’s history, remission of 38 months, like Tommy received, has never been granted.

“This will have to be listed in the Indonesian records museum,” he said, Tuesday (31/10).

Rudy asked the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission for Law to confirm the matter as he regards this as harming the sense of justice.

“The Commission III can ask about it to the Justice and Human Rights Minister.”

However, Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaludin guaranteed there wasn’t any money involved behind Tommy’s release.

He said that Tommy’s release was in accordance with provisions.

“This is legitimate for anyone,” said Hamid after the anniversary of his department, yesterday.

Riky Ferdianto, Agoeng Wijaya and Dian Yuliastuti