Jakarta – A court on Thursday threw out a civil case filed against Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra by the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) and awarded the son of former president Soeharto Rp 5 billion (US$549,000) in damages in a countersuit he filed for defamation.
"The South Jakarta District Court finds that the defendants have fulfilled all their financial obligations to the plaintiff (Bulog), thus all charges against them must be dropped," presiding judge Haswandi said in reading the decision.
Besides Tommy, the youngest son of the later Soeharto, the defendants included Ricardo Gelael and former Bulog chief Beddu Amang.
The court agreed with the defendants' argument that Bulog earned Rp 9.43 billion from the land exchange deal at the center of the case. According to an audit provided by Tommy's lawyers, Bulog spent Rp 65.08 billion in the land deal and ended up with Rp 74.51 billion.
"The defendant (Tommy) is a businessman with a domestic and international reputation and he should be given fair compensation for non-material damages done to his good name," Efran Basyuni, one of the judges, said.
Bulog initially sued Tommy, his company PT Goro Bhatara Sakti, Ricardo Gelael and Beddu Amang in August last year, accusing them of cheating the state agency out of more than Rp 244.2 billion. On Jan. 21, Tommy countersued, demanding Rp 10 trillion in material and non-material damages.
Bulog lawyer Asfifuddin questioned the court's decision. "How the judges ruled that the defendants paid Bulog is unclear to me. The judges never reviewed that evidence in court," he said. "When did they pay Bulog? How much did it get? Has it received the money yet?"
Asfifuddin said he would have to consult with his client before deciding on an appeal. "I personally think the compensation is a mistake, but Bulog will have to review the rest of the verdict before making the decision to appeal," he said.
PT Goro Bhatara Sakti, represented by Tommy as its chairman and Ricardo Gelael, exchanged land with Bulog, which was represented by its then chief Beddu Amang, on Aug. 11, 1995. Prosecutors claimed that Tommy and his colleagues intentionally sold or damaged the exchanged assets, causing massive losses to Bulog.
An amateur race car driver and flamboyant playboy, Tommy was freed from prison in October 2006 after serving only a third of the 15-year prison term handed to him in July 2002 for ordering the murder of a Supreme Court justice. (anw)