Jakarta – Indonesian police may arrest defense lawyers for allegedly bribing witnesses to lie during the trial of Tommy Suharto on murder and illegal weapons charges, a report said Tuesday.
Jakarta police on Sunday arrested Rahmat Hidayat, a former security guard at an apartment block allegedly used by Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the youngest son of the former Indonesian dictator.
They have accused him of perjury by denying his earlier statement to police which implicated Tommy in a weapons stash found in the building.
Police say Hidayat had received two million rupiah (215 dollars) from the defense team, which is led by Elza Syarief, to lie when he testified in Tommy's trial on Wednesday last week.
"The arrest of Rahmat Hidayat by the Jakarta police is legal. So Elza and partners should be ready in case we arrest [them]," said spokesman Senior Commisioner Anton Bachrul Alam, quoted by Detikcom news portal.
Prosecutors said Hidayat and two other security guards from the Cemara Apartments had named Tommy as the owner of the weapons. But the three retracted their statements during last week's trial and denied they had signed police statements implicating Tommy.
The police chief for corruption investigations, Anton Wahono, was quoted by Detikcom as saying eight witnesses were being questioned in the alleged bribery case. "We have gathered 70 percent of evidence to follow up this case," Wahono said. He said police would also question Syarief, who has denied any knowledge of a bribery attempt.
Alam told the Kompas daily that police were also searching for the two other guards who were also suspected of perjury.
Tommy, a former millionaire playboy, is charged with ordering the July 2001 drive-by killing of a Supreme Court judge who had sentenced him to jail on a graft conviction, and with illegal possession of weapons. He could face the death penalty if convicted on either charge,
Police allege they discovered a cache of weapons when they raided the central Jakarta Cemara Apartments on August 5, 2001, and a second cache of weapons in a later raid on a south Jakarta house allegedly used by Tommy.