Matthew Moore, Jakarta – The oldest daughter of former Indonesian president Soeharto is being investigated for corruption after revelations that she received a 16.5 million pounds ($A42.2 million) payment from a British arms company.
Indonesia's powerful Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK) is investigating Siti "Tutut" Hardiyanti Rukmana after the release in Britain of court documents revealing the huge payment in a deal to sell light tanks.
The investigation is the first by the KPK into the Soeharto family, whose members have avoided convictions for corruption, despite their reputations for taking a cut of every big government project or purchase in the latter stages of their father's rule.
Last week, the High Court in London granted The Guardian access to court documents that show the Alvis company paid Ms Rukmana the 16.5 million pounds as a "tax" as part of two deals worth 160 million pounds to sell the Indonesian army 100 light tanks.
The deputy head of the KPK, Erry Hardjapamekas, told The Guardian his staff had begun investigating the case, which he described as "a high-profile case that has to be a major concern" for his body. "It appears the state budget may have been used to buy these tanks and that the deal may have contained irregularities ... If that's the case and it caused losses to the state, it's corruption and cannot be tolerated," he said.
He said he would seek court documents from England as part of the inquiry and said he had no plans to question Ms Rukmana soon as the case was complex. Ms Rukmana has refused to answer the revelations and her lawyer, Amir Syamsuddin, told Detik news internet that she had not raised the matter with him.
Apart from Ms Rukmanam, a number of former senior army leaders have been implicated in the case – although Mr Hardjapamekas has not said which of them might be investigated.
The documents name two former army chiefs, generals Hartono and Wismoyo Arisunandar, a former deputy army chief, and senior generals.
General Hartono has been extremely close to Ms Rukmana for years and is the chairman of the political party she set up last year in order to contest the presidential elections. General Hartono went to England with Ms Rukmana in 1994 although he said he was not involved in the purchase of the Scorpion tanks or in convincing the Government to buy them.
He said the person who knew about the deal was the then deputy chief of the army, General Sahala Rajagukguk, but that he was now dead.
In September 2000, a Jakarta court ruled that former president Soeharto was mentally and physically unfit to stand trial on charges of embezzling $US571 million ($A756.29 million) in state funds. However, he still lives at his home in Jakarta and appears in good condition.