Tommy Suharto, youngest son of Indonesia's former dictator, said he was the victim of planted evidence as his trial resumed on murder and firearms charges which could result in the death penalty.
"Those things are not mine," Hutomo [Tommy] Mandala Putra told judges after a police officer testified that nine guns were found at a Jakarta apartment complex which he owned.
Tommy, the first close member of the Suharto clan to appear personally in court, is accused of ordering the contract killing of a judge who had tried to send him to jail for corruption and of two counts of weapons possession. Both offences are punishable by death.
Tommy, 39, also faces a charge of fleeing justice. He went on the run for a year to escape the 18-month jail sentence imposed by supreme court judge Syafiuddin Kartasasmita in September 2000. Kartasasmita was gunned down in broad daylight the following July. Prosecutors say Tommy paid two hitmen 10,000 dollars and gave them two pistols.
Police officer Eddi Purbo Susanto, the first witness in a trial expected to last months, said officers searching for Tommy last August found four rifles, five handguns and ammunition inside closets at an apartment in the Cemara Apartments complex.
Susanto also said two gun licences were found in a bundle of documents in a safe at the apartment. He said he did not know if the licences were for the weapons found in the apartment.
Tommy denied he had kept any gun licences there. "There was no weapons licence in the said files. If there was any it must have been placed there after they [the files] were found by police," he said.
Susanto said Cemara Apartments manager Hetty Siti Hartika, 35, told police Tommy owned the firearms. On February 20 Hartika was jailed for four years for storing and possessing the weapons. She had denied knowing about them but admitted receiving bags from Tommy to store there.
One of Tommy's lawyers, Juan Felix Tampubolon, questioned the authenticity of the items used as evidence and the legality of the alleged firearms seizure. "The documents of the seizure are confusing and some of the items are not sealed," Tampubolon said, pointing out that the seizure documents were signed a month after the discovery.
Tommy, sporting an open-necked batik shirt, appeared calm as prosecutors began calling their witnesses in a trial which has attracted huge public interest. About 100 police guarded the court building and those entering the courtroom were checked with metal detectors.
The number of judges was raised to five from three when the hearing opened on March 20. Andi Samsan Nganro, one of the original judges, has said the aim is to ensure an "objective verdict."
The former millionaire playboy tycoon, a symbol of nepotism during his father's 1966-1998 rule, has refused to enter a formal plea but has always maintained his innocence. Six other witnesses were due to testify Wednesday, including the wife of the murdered judge.
Suharto senior, now 80, resigned amid mass riots in May 1998 after 32 years in power, during which his family amassed enormous wealth. He himself has been charged with corruptly amassing 571 million dollars, but has been adjudged too ill to stand trial.
Tommy's Humpuss group became one of Indonesia's major conglomerates but his business empire largely evaporated after his father's fall.