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Hutomo escapes through window

Source
South China Morning Post - December 30, 2000

Jake Lloyd-Smith and Reuters in Jakarta – The fugitive son of ex-president Suharto was caught by police after two months on the run – but escaped custody by jumping out of a window, President Abdurrahman Wahid said yesterday.

The tale of extraordinary incompetence by the authorities comes after police have already faced a tide of criticism for not apprehending Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra. Despite intensive efforts to track him down, Hutomo has been evading the police since being sentenced to 18 months' jail for his part in a land scam.

In comments carried by the online edition of the Jakarta Post, Mr Wahid said Hutomo escaped custody in a small town in East Java. "Around two weeks ago, a policeman managed to arrest ... Tommy, but Tommy told him that he wanted to speak to me, saying he had the taped conversation with me which was kept by his lawyers.

"Then the policeman went outside [the room] to convey his message via cellular phone to me," Mr Wahid was quoted as saying. "I told the policeman that there is no such taped conversation and I ordered him to go inside the room and just arrest [Hutomo], but the latter had fled the room through a window."

Many Indonesians believe that Hutomo – who amassed a vast array of business interests when his father was in office – has already left the country. Others say that Hutomo has been using his considerable wealth to pay off local authorities and avoid detection.

A police source in East Java said that Hutomo was almost caught earlier this month after a convoy of four cars was stopped by police near a ferry crossing linking East Java to the resort island of Bali. He was noticed inside one of the cars.

But after several minutes, Hutomo's convoy sped off into East Java, and police were unable to catch them despite giving chase and setting up roadblocks over the province. The source did not mention the telephone call the policeman was said to have made to Mr Wahid, or give any further details.

Hutomo has managed to evade the clutches of police despite an international manhunt and the fact he is one of Indonesia's most recognisable faces. Police have searched the elder Suharto's home in Jakarta and those of other family members several times.

Photographs of prosecutors trying to peer over the gate of Hutomo's Jakarta mansion in pouring rain on November 3 when they first went to take him to jail, only to find he had slipped out hours before, still haunt Mr Wahid's administration.

While all of Suharto's six children amassed great wealth during their father's rule, none attracted as much criticism as Hutomo. Critics have accused the Suharto family of corruptly stashing away as much as US$45 billion (HK$350.9 billion) during the autocrat's 32-year, army-backed rule. They deny any wrongdoing.

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