JAKARTA A court on Thursday rejected a civil case against the youngest son of former presidet Suharto for alleged corruption and awarded him 550,000 dollars in a countersuit he filed, judges said. The move provoked an outcry among activists in Indonesia who have been fighting to bring the relatives of Suharto, who died last month aged 86, to justice over alleged graft.
The national logistics agency Bulog had been seeking 550 billion rupiah (61 million dollars) from Tommy Suharto and other defendants in damages relating to an alleged 1995 land exchange scam. “The panel of judges at the South Jakarta district court rejected all accusations filed by Bulog against all defendants,” the chief of the panel, Haswandi, told the court.
“The panel of judges accepted the counter-lawsuit filed by Tommy Suharto and ordered Bulog to pay immaterial damages to Tommy Suharto in the amount of five billion rupiah (364.000 euro),” he added. Tommy is a former commissioner for Goro Batara Sakti (GBS), a supermarkt chain which has now gone defunct. The company acquired prime land owned by Bulog in trade for some worthless swamps in northern Jakarta.
