Jakarta – Vice President Hamzah Haz on Tuesday urged Indonesians to respect a supreme court decision quashing a graft conviction and jail sentence on Tommy Suharto, fugitive son of the former dictator. But critics said Monday's ruling showed that law enforcement had become meaningless. About 150 students held a protest rally near the home of former president Suharto.

"We must respect that institution's decision," Haz told reporters. Three judges on Monday overturned a previous ruling by the same court last year, which had sentenced Tommy to 18 months in jail for his alleged role in a land fraud deal involving his company and the State Logistics Agency.

Justice M. Taufik said new evidence had emerged to show Tommy was not part of his company's day-to-day operations at the time. Tommy failed to surrender last year to serve the 18-month sentence. The hunt for him was stepped up in August after police accused him of ordering the murder of one of the judges who had sentenced him and of involvement in Jakarta bomb blasts.

A Suharto family lawyer urged the former millionaire playboy to give himself up and clear his name. "It is better if Tommy reappears and uses the positive momentum from the supreme court's decision to clarify himself over the other charges," Mohammad Assegaf told AFP.

One of Tommy's own lawyers, Nudirman Munir, also said his client should surrender because it would help him to "clarify all the charges laid by the police ... he will also be able to prove himself before the public whether he is guilty or not." Nudirman has praised the court's "fair" decision

But Teten Masduki of the Indonesian Corruption Watch, quoted by the Jakarta Post, said Tommy had initiated the deal in question. "The decision by a panel of Supreme Court justices is very controversial and could tarnish Indonesia's legal system," he said. "This case indicates the death of our legal system. It appears that no hope can be expected by the public from the Supreme Court ... to restore law enforcement, especially to eradicate corruption."

Noted lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution said the court's decision to review the case while Tommy is on the run showed that "law enforcement in Indonesia has become meaningless."

Tommy, 39, the boss of the Humpuss business group, received numerous favours from his father, including a contract to build a national car which involved nothing more than sticking a badge on an imported model. He had been the only member of the Suharto family to be found guilty of corruption.

The former president was charged with embezzling some 571 million dollars of state funds but court officials say he is unfit to face trial following a stroke.

Police have been accused of bungling the search for Tommy. Despite a series of high-profile raids, the posting of a large reward and the dropping of "wanted" posters" from helicopters, he remains at large. National police spokesman Brigadier General Saleh Saaf said the hunt would go on and Tommy "remains our main suspect" in the judge's death and the bombings.

"The Supreme Court's new decision only affects his land scam case and it has nothing to do with the other two cases," Saaf told AFP.