Jakarta – The fugitive son of former Indonesian president Suharto will likely meet prosecutors on Monday, his lawyers said Saturday as prison officials said his co-accused, Ricardo Gelael, had given himself up and begun serving his 18-month jail term late on Friday.
"On Monday morning, we will present ourselves to the South Jakarta prosecutors' office along with Tommy, unless there is a change to the plan," lawyer Erman Umar told AFP.
But he said he did not know the whereabouts of Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, 38 – Suharto's youngest and favorite son – who was declared a fugitive from justice at midnight Friday. "I can't ascertain whether he [Tommy] is in or out of town, but one thing for sure, he did not run away," Umar said without further explanation.
Meanwhile prison staff said that while the spotlight was focused on a futile prosecutors' raid on Tommy's empty Jakarta home Friday night, his co-accused and former business partner Ricardo Gelael had surrendered to Jakarta's high security Cipinang prison at 9.45pm Friday.
Tommy and Gelael were sentenced to 18 months in jail when the Supreme Court overturned two lower court verdicts in late September and found them guilty of causing 10.7 million dollars in losses to the state. They were accused of swapping a tract of swampy land for a prime real estate site belonging to the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) in order to build a superstore.
Cipinang penitentiary guard Hani Manoppo told AFP Gelael was occupying "a common cell room at block IV A" with two other inmates, one of whom was a convicted wife killer.
He said Gelael, who on Friday had also filed an appeal for a review of his case, would be allowed visits "just like any ordinary inmate" and could receive relatives twice a day.
Prior to entering Cipinang, Gelael said he had given himself up because he "did not want my family to suffer for what I have done"."I have said goodbye to my family and to my mother, who is right now suffering a heart attack," Gelael was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post newspaper.
Outside the jail Saturday around 70 former inmates staged a protest demanding Tommy be given the same treatment ordinary prisoners. "Before us, Now Tommy," read one of the banners.
President Abdurrahman Wahid, who on Thursday denied a presidential pardon to Tommy, issued a brief statement urging the public to be patient until Monday "while state authorities attempt to arrest and jail" him.
Prosecutors and police, armed with an arrest warrant, tried vainly to arrest Tommy at his plush downtown residence, just a stone's throw away from his father's house, on Friday night. But the house was empty and dark, save for a huge black dog which snarled and barked at them over the metal side-gate.
Manoppo said Gelael could either eat Cipinang's standard prison fare – which includes rice, meat, eggs and salted fish – or eat outside food brought by his visitors.
A similar jail cell had already been prepared for Tommy at Cipinang penitentiary, where scores of political prisoners were held during his father's 32-year autocratic rule. The director of the country's penal system, Adi Suyatno, told AFP on Friday the cell awaiting Tommy at Cipinang was a standard room with "ventilation, a mattress and a toilet." Ironically it had once held Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao, he said.
If jailed, Tommy – married with one child after being known as a ladies' man for many years – would be the first in the family to be put behind bars since his father stepped down amid mass demonstrations in May 1998. Tommy, along with five other Suharto siblings, controls some of the country's biggest conglomerates, which they obtained by using their father's power prior to his fall.