Jakarta – Mohammand "Bob" Hasan, the timber tycoon and business partner of former Indonesian dictator Suharto, sentenced to two years jail for corruption, will serve his term under house arrest, the state Antara news agency said Saturday.

Antara quoted legal sources as saying that the Central Jakarta District Court had decided that Hasan could deduct the 10 months he spent in prison awaiting trial from his sentence, and serve the remainder under house arrest.

Friday's ruling was the first guilty verdict handed down to a Suharto crony since the former dictator fell from power in May 1998.

Hasan, 70, who was also Suharto's golfing buddy and last trade minister, was found guilty of abandoning an aerial forest mapping project, causing losses to the state of 14.2 billion rupiah.

The court also ordered Hasan to pay a 15 million rupiah (1,578 dollar) fine and repay the state the 14.2 billion rupiah he was charged with embezzling from the forestry association fund.

Hasan's defence lawyer, Agustinus Hutajulu, immediately appealed the verdict, while the prosecution which had demanded an eight-year jail term was undecided on whether it also would lodge an appeal.

The prosecution charged that Hasan's company, PT Mapindo Parama, cheated the state by mapping only 81 forest concessions, when the contract, awarded in 1989, was for 599 concessions.

The company also took eight years to carry out the incomplete mapping, when the contract called for completion in three years.

Additional charges against Hasan included the misappropriation of 168 million dollars from the members of the Forest Concessionaires' Association, and another 75 million in funds from the ministry of forestry.