Jakarta – Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh said Friday his office would present more evidence at a British trial to support his argument that Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra's funds at an overseas bank were obtained through graft.
"The Attorney General's Office will bring in new evidence to argue at the trial, in which we have been invited as a third party, that the 35 million euros (US$46 million) in dispute was obtained through illegal acts," Abdul Rahman said as quoted by Antara.
The trial is being held at the Guernsey Royal Court in the United Kingdom.
The attorney general said his office would present evidence that Tommy had received the money from the Supersemar Foundation. Tommy's father, former president Soeharto, has been accused of financial irregularities in connection with the foundation.
Besides alleged money laundering, the attorney general's office said Tommy was involved in corruption surrounding the Timor national car project, the Goro land-swap deal and the Sempati Air project.
The attorney general added that his office was bringing in new lawyers Simon Davis and Jonathan Barkley for the trial.
"It's the right of the lawyer to quit. It is also our right to replace him. We have dealt with the lawyer, we could not cooperate with him, so we just let him go," Adbul Rahman said as quoted by detik.com news portal.
The trial resulted when Bank Nationale de Paris (BNP) Paribas at Guernsey refused to release Tommy's money, citing allegations of money laundering. Garnet Investment Ltd., which is owned by Tommy, took the bank to court.
A separate dispute is brewing around BNP Paribas in London, which made US$10 million of Tommy's funds available. The bank obtained clearance from the justice ministry, which said the funds were not obtained through graft. The clearance was issued while Yusril Ihza Mahendra, the current state secretary, was the justice minister. The money was withdrawn during the tenure of current justice minister Hamid Awaluddin.
Tommy used the services of legal firm Ihza and Ihza, which is partly owned by Yusril, to obtain several approvals for the clearance. The funds were ultimately transferred through the justice ministry's account.
Indonesian Corruption Watch coordinator Teten Masduki earlier asked the Corruption Eradication Commission to probe both Yusril and Hamid, saying that using a government's account for private benefit could be considered graft.
"In Tommy Soeharto's case, the justice ministry has no right to issue a 'free of corruption' guarantee to any institution," Teten said.
The transfer of the money could violate the 2003 state funds law, since a government account is not supposed to be used to transfer private funds, especially those that may have resulted from graft.
The 2003 money laundering law says criminal acts of money laundering include locating, transferring, paying, selling, granting, donating, bringing overseas, or swapping money obtained from graft in order to legitimize the funds.