Jakarta – A top crony of former Indonesian president Suharto, Muhammad "Bob" Hasan, was sent back to jail Tuesday after a successful appeal against a court ruling that he could serve a corruption sentence under house arrest, officials said.
Once dubbed the 'Plywood King,' Hasan was sentenced to two years prison by the Central Jakarta District Court two weeks ago for causing losses to the state of 244 million dollars through a fraudulent aerial mapping survey in 1990.
Hasan, now 70, was appointed Suharto's minister of trade in 1997, and was the first of the former dictator's cronies to be taken to court for corruption, and the first to be convicted after Suharto's downfall in May 1998. He had already spent several months in detention awaiting his trial.
Prosecutor Arnold Angkaw told the state Antara news agency that Hasan had been sent back to jail following the appeals court decision. Hasan returned to central Jakarta's Salemba prison early Tuesday, prison guard Wibowo told AFP.
A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, Muilyoharjo said Hasan would spend at least 30 days behind bars. "He is going to spend 30 days in Salemba because the Jakarta Appeals' Court deems it necessary to have him locked up," Mulyoharjo told AFP. The term could be extended by another 60 days for "interrogation purposes," he said.
The district court on February 2 ordered Hasan to pay a 15 million rupiah (1,578 dollar) fine and to repay the state the 14.1 billion rupiah (about 1.5 million dollars) he was found to have embezzled from a forestry association fund.
An appeal by Hasan against the prison term is pending, alongside the prosecutors' 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.
Indonesian judges dismissed a multi-million dollar corruption case against Suharto himself in September 2000. Although the High Court overturned that ruling in November, the 79-year-old has yet to appear in court.
Suharto also scored another victory last week when the Indonesian Supreme Court ruled that the 79-year-old former army general – who has suffered two strokes and other ailments – could not be tried until his health recovered.
The former dictator has been accused of stealing 571 million dollars from the state by funnelling money from huge tax-free charity foundations he ran into the businesses of family and friends.