JAKARTA: Anticorruption activists urge the government to make another attempt to take over Hutomo Mandala Putra or Tommy Soeharto’s assets abroad through an appeal filed to the Guernsey Court of Appeal in the UK.
Last month the court ruled in favor of Tommy in the case of his frozen assets worth ¤36 million (US$47 million).
The activists from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), Transparency International Indonesia (TII), Indonesia Center for Legal and Policy Studies (PSHK) and Indonesia Transparency Society (MTI), grouped under Asset Tracking Coalition, said the government still had an opportunity to get hold of the asset.
Fawaiq Suwanan of MTI said the government could submit Indonesia’s Supreme Court decision that approved a case review filed by the Finance Ministry and Bank Mandiri. “By submitting this decision, Tommy’s case at the appeal court could be reopened,” Fawaiq said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
Adnan Topan of ICW said Tommy’s victory showed that the government failed to make enough effort to supervise the case. The government won the case in 2007 and should have frozen the assets at that time, he said. “It was as if the government gave Tommy an opportunity to file an appeal,” he went on. — JP
Source: The Jakarta Post | Sat, 03/12/2011
