Tommy Suharto, the youngest son of Indonesia's former dictator, testified for the first time in his murder trial and accused the then-president of interfering in his earlier corruption case.

Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra is currently on trial for possessing weapons and for ordering the contract killing in July 2001 of Supreme Court judge Syafiuddin Kartasasmita. Both offences are punishable by death.

In September 2000 the Supreme Court, which Kartasasmita headed, overturned an acquittal by a lower court and ordered Tommy jailed for 18 months for a corrupt land deal.

The former millionaire playboy said he, his lawyer and three other friends met Kartasasmita at the latter's house in October 2000 to ask the reason for the conviction and sentence. Tommy at the time was free pending an official order committing him to jail.

Tommy said Kartasasmita told him that then-president Abdurrahman Wahid had interfered in his case by asking the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court's acquittal.

"I knew all along that I would lose my case because of intervention from the palace," a relaxed Tommy told the court, adding that he had earlier received such information from sources at the Supreme Court. "He [Kartasasmita] ... confirmed there was a demand from the palace," he said.

Tommy said the judge asked him at the meeting to get the "green light from the palace" if he wanted further action.

Tommy said that the same month he met Wahid twice at separate smart hotels. The president told him to go ahead with his plan to apply for a review of the verdict and promised he would not interfere in the case.

Tommy said two men close to Wahid who helped arrange the meeting later asked for 15 billion rupiah (now 1.7 million dollars) to help smooth his appeal process. They promised to return the cash if the review application was rejected. Tommy also applied for a presidential pardon but Wahid turned him down.

Tommy failed to turn himself in to serve the jail term by the November 3, 2000 deadline and went on the run. In October last year, in a controversial twist to the case, a separate Supreme Court panel granted Tommy's request for a review of the verdict and quashed the corruption conviction.

But police arrested him the following month on suspicion of ordering the judge's murder. They say they also found arms caches in two properties linked to Tommy during their year-long search for the country's most famous fugitive.

Tommy, a symbol of nepotism during his father's 32-year rule, has maintained his innocence of the murder and weapons charges.

Two men who were allegedly paid 10,000 dollars by Tommy to kill the judge were sentenced to life in prison on May 8. The trial was continuing.