Bandar Seri Begawan – Tommy Suharto's conviction augurs well for the independence of the judiciary in Indonesia, according to Datuk Param Cumaraswamy, the United Nations special rapporteur who had last week said the country's legal system was the worst he had ever seen.

Speaking in his capacity as a member of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) working group on human rights, Datuk Cumaraswamy told reporters yesterday: 'The outcome of this case speaks well for the independence of the judiciary in Indonesia.

"We've got to build sufficient confidence-building measures to restore the dignity of the courts," he added.

During a recently concluded 10-day mission to investigate Indonesia's judiciary, he had ruffled feathers in the country when he remarked that for a country the size of Indonesia and with its continuing economic development, the state of its judiciary "should never have been allowed to come to this extent".

Senior Asean diplomats, meeting in Brunei to lay the groundwork for next week's meetings of foreign ministers, also described Tommy's conviction as a "development" for Indonesian democracy.

"It means the wheels of justice are turning in Indonesia," said Mr Rodolfo Severino, Asean Secretary-General. "If justice is working, that is very important for its stability."

Mr Makarim Wibisono, a senior Indonesian foreign ministry official, called the ruling a "very good development".

"I think this demonstrates that the process of legal and judicial reforms continues," he said. "Once this is felt by everybody, that justice is working, people will respect it because they consider the [conviction] will bring the country out of underdevelopment and the past," he said.