Ahmad Pathoni, Jakarta – The youngest son of former Indonesian president Suharto was conditionally released from jail on Monday, after serving a third of his original sentence for plotting the murder of a Supreme Court judge.

The move drew immediate fire from critics who said it showed undue leniency and favoritism for the powerful.

Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, 44, had been jailed for 15 years for paying a hitman to kill the judge and for other offences, but that was reduced to 10 years on appeal and further sliced by a series of holiday "remissions."

The murdered judge had convicted Tommy in a graft case. In all Tommy served five years before Monday's release. "He is out. He will serve the remaining time outside the prison," Gusti Tamarjaya, the Justice Ministry official handling penitentiaries in Jakarta, told reporters.

While no longer in jail, Tommy is theoretically still a prisoner, having to meet various probation conditions.

Tommy was originally sentenced in 2002. He had already served about a year during the prosecution process.

Like thousands of other prisoners, he benefited from the remission programme. The latest six-week cut last week for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday meant he had served two-thirds of his reduced sentence, making him eligible for release.

"In a country upholding the law, we cannot discriminate. After he has served two-thirds of his sentence, automatically he is free with conditions," Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters.

Spotlight on Indonesia justice

However, not all prisoners who serve two-thirds of their terms are released, and the country's attorney general had earlier been quoted as saying various factors could be weighed before a decision was made.

Johnson Pandjaitan, a leading human rights lawyer from the Indonesian Human Rights and Legal Aid Association, told Reuters it was wrong to view the release as automatic.

"Conditional release is never automatic. Nothing is really automatic. It should go through a certain process."

"The problem is this country has a president but does not have a leader in law enforcement," Pandjaitan said, referring to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, currently on a trip to China. "(Yudhoyono) had the chance to control his Justice Ministry officials but he did not take it."

Arbi Sanit, a political analyst from the University of Indonesia, said: "It gives the impression that the (Yudhoyono) government is giving special treatment to Suharto's family. This sends a wrong signal to people outside Indonesia, giving the impression that laws can be bent at will."

Tommy's original 15-year sentence had already been criticised by some as too lenient and showing Indonesian justice had one standard for the powerful and another for the weak. The actual hitman and an accomplice received life sentences and were ineligible for remissions.

Prison and other government officials have said the courts acted independently in Tommy's case and his sentence remissions were similar to those granted to others.

Tommy's father ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for more than three decades before stepping down in 1998, and several members of his family became rich.

Too ill for trial

Suharto himself was charged with graft but escaped prosecution as courts accepted medical statements he was too ill to stand trial. The former president and family members deny any wrongdoing.

Criticism of the justice system in a country where corruption is endemic and judges not necessarily well-trained or highly paid is not new. In one controversial decision earlier this month, a three-member Supreme Court panel overturned the guilty verdict on an off-duty pilot convicted of murdering leading human rights activist, Munir Thalib, in 2004.

Rights groups say the pilot had ties to influential figures, and authorities had dragged their feet investigating the case. "The treatment for Tommy contrasts with the way the government handled Munir's murder case, which allegedly involved people in power circles," said Sanit.

Meanwhile, several lavish "welcome home" bouquets from well-wishers could be seen outside Tommy's home in the Suharto family complex in an upmarket area of Jakarta, radio station Elshinta reported.

[With additional reporting by Achmad Sukarsono.]