Suharto's fugitive son linked to judge killing

JAKARTA - Suspects in the murder of a senior Indonesian judge have accused former President Suharto's fugitive youngest son of masterminding the killing, police said yesterday.

Police have linked the millionaire fugitive Hutomo Mandala Putra, or "Tommy" Suharto, to a spate of fatal bombings in the country and the murder two weeks ago of the chief judge who last year sentenced him to 18 months in jail for graft.

"The suspects said that it was Tommy who gave the order.

"They said he gave them 100 million rupiah [$25,800] and firearms to carry it out," Jakarta police spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam said.

Jakarta police chief Sofyan Yacob gave the Suharto family three days to surrender the millionaire playboy to authorities.

Two motorcycle gunmen shot Supreme Court judge Syaifuddin Kartasasmita in broad daylight in the capital, sending chills through a judicial system better known for settling cases with bribes than bullets.

Police said they arrested two men over the killing yesterday, hours after finding explosives and documents linking Tommy to a spate of recent bombings which have rocked the troubled nation.

Tommy has been on the run since November, making the police subject to widespread ridicule for their failure to capture one of the country's best-known figures.

Police distributed copies of a photograph they said the fugitive used for a fake ID card and which showed him wearing a beard and bearing the name "Ibrahim".

The accusations of Tommy's involved in the judge's murder came as a homemade bomb exploded in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, killing a woman as she was buying her breakfast from a street vendor outside her home.

"The residents of the house are just an ordinary family," city police chief Ito Sumardi said.

"It is located in East Surabaya, in a normal residential area with small houses. We just don't understand why those crazy people put the bomb there."

Tommy's lawyer, Nudirman Munir, urged him to give himself up but said he knew his client did not want to "because he believes he has been treated unfairly."

Police said raids on the homes of friends of the fugitive had uncovered evidence of his involvement in the bombings over the past year but no trace of him.

- REUTERS

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