Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – An Indonesian court yesterday dismissed corruption charges against former president Soeharto as the Government intensified its confrontation with his family and angry protesters clashed with police on the streets.
A panel of five judges abandoned the trial after 24 doctors appointed by the Attorney-General gave evidence that Soeharto, 79, was medically unfit to be tried for alleged embezzlement of $A1 billion from charities.
"The entire clinical, psychiatric and psychogeriatric findings show that Soeharto is mentally unfit for trial," Dr Jakaria of the University of Indonesia said. Prosecutors said they would appeal.
As judges were reading the decision police fired tear gas and plastic bullets at hundreds of anti-Soeharto demonstrators throwing stones and fuel bombs outside the complex where the trial was being held.
Witnesses said at least three people were injured by police beatings. Protesters also attacked a busload of Soeharto supporters, seriously injuring at least two. Later, soldiers fired warning shots above the heads of scores of students who were headed towards Soeharto's house, where hundreds of his supporters had gathered.
Speaking earlier in Caracas, Venezuela, during a 10-day overseas trip, President Abdurrahman Wahid said security forces should allow students to protest outside Soeharto's house, where streets have been blocked by security forces since his downfall in 1998.
"The most they can do is throw stones at the windows," Mr Wahid said. "Leave them be. I mean Soeharto was very corrupt wasn't he?"
In effect Mr Wahid, convinced that the Soeharto family is behind a series of bombings in Jakarta, is sharply raising the stakes to get the family to negotiate a settlement with the Government, including paying back billions of dollars stolen during the former president's 32 years in power.
But the dropping of the charges makes it more difficult for the Government to negotiate a deal. Mr Wahid had said he would pardon Soeharto if he was found guilty and he returned his ill-gotten fortune.
The respected Governor of Yogyakarta, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, described Mr Wahid's remarks about protesters at Soeharto's house as inappropriate. "It is unethical for a president to say such a thing," the official Antara news agency quoted him as saying. "I have nothing against student protests, but vandalism is another thing and it is not right."
The Justice Minister, Mr Yusril Ihza Mahendra, meanwhile ordered the arrest of Soeharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, who was sentenced on appeal by the Supreme Court on Tuesday to 18 months' jail over a corrupt land deal.
Tommy's lawyers say they will seek a further appeal, but an official at the Attorney-General's office said that unless Tommy sought an amnesty he would be jailed on Monday in Jakarta's Cipinang prison.
Tommy, who is married with five children, would be the first member of the Soeharto family to go to jail. "He is cornered. The Government is playing it very tough, " an Asian diplomat monitoring the case said. "The only possibility for Tommy not to go to jail is to ask for a pardon, but he would first have to admit his guilt."
AFP reports that Indonesian police shot and killed four people as they tried to fend off a mob attacking a police station in East Java. It quoted the national police chief, Commissioner Saroyo Bimantoro, as saying yesterday that about 600 people carrying fuel bombs, sickles and other weapons attacked the Bondowoso district police station at 7pm on Wednesday.
They set fire to it in protest at the release of a murder suspect due to lack of evidence, having earlier torched the suspect's home, the police chief said.