Jakarta – Indonesia's central bank has refused an order to freeze the bank accounts of a fugitive son of former president Suharto, saying it has no authority to do so, the state Antara news agency said Saturday.
"Under the Bank Indonesia (BI) law, the central bank only has the power to permit judicial authorities to examine someone's bank accounts but not to freeze them," the agency quoted the bank's director of legal affairs, Sys Abadi, as saying on Friday.
Abadi said BI was currently preparing a reply to the attorney general's office stating that it had no legal power to freeze anyone's accounts.
The attorney general's office had asked Bank Indonesia to freeze the accounts of Suharto's youngest and favorite son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, who has been on the run from the law for more than two months.
Prosecutors have already seized two downtown Jakarta houses owned by the 38-year-old millionaire businessman, who since November 3 has been dodging police trying to arrest and jail him on corruption charges.
BI Governor Syahril Sabirin told Antara earlier that he had received the written request from the Attorney General.
Tommy disappeared without a trace on Novmber 3 after President Aburrahman Wahid refused to grant him a pardon on a Supreme Court verdict sentencing him to 18 months in jail for a corrupt land- swap deal. The fugitive son's relatives say he has not fled the country despite the search.
If jailed Tommy would become the first member of the Suharto family – all of whom are wealthy business magnates – to go behind bars since his father's fall from power amid mass protests in 1998.
Jakarta is also trying to bring the elder Suharto to trial for massive corruption in connection with the tax-free charities he ran while in power.
On Wednesday Switzerland said it was willing to help Indonesia investigate whether the former dictator had moved billions of dollars in funds through Swiss banks.
But Foreign Minister Joseph Deiss said Bern was still waiting for details from Jakarta, after a first Swiss request for more information in the summer of 1999 went unanswered.
"We haven't received anything yet, but my counterpart assured me he will make sure the process moves forward," the Swiss minister said after meeting Indonesian foreign minister Alwi Shihab.
Suharto has been accused of stealing 571 million dollars from the state by allegedly funnelling money from the charity foundations into the businesses of family and friends.
US magazine Time reported in May 1999 that Suharto and his six children had amassed a fortune of 15 billion dollars, of which nine billion dollars were allegedly transferred from Switzerland to Austria before he stepped down.