Hands Off Cain
Indonesia

From meatball vendors to taxi drivers, ordinary Indonesians...

From meatball vendors to taxi drivers, ordinary Indonesians expressed outrage at the 15-year jail term slapped on Tommy Suharto for ordering the killing of a judge and other crimes, saying it was not enough

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From meatball vendors to taxi drivers, ordinary Indonesians expressed outrage at the 15-year jail term slapped on Tommy Suharto for ordering the killing of a judge and other crimes, saying it was not enough.
A Jakarta court earlier sentenced former president Suharto's favourite son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra to a total of 15 years' jail for a series of offences, including paying a hitman to murder a judge who had previously convicted him of graft.
Tommy missed the session, complaining of an upset stomach.
"Even a thief gets longer punishment," said Yanto, 23, as he sold meatballs on a footpath.vConstruction worker Alek, 35, said: "It's not deserving, it should be more."
Two men received life sentences in May for killing judge Syafiuddin Kartasasmita in 2000.
The court said Tommy had paid one of the men to carry out the daylight shooting. Tommy, 40, denied masterminding the murder of the judge while on the run from the corruption conviction.
His lawyers argued Tommy would never get a fair trial in Indonesia, where many people say the former flamboyant playboy and stock car driver epitomised the excesses of his father's three decades in power.
Few people on the streets of Jakarta were happy with the verdict.
The murder charge alone could have carried the death penalty.
Many ordinary Indonesians bemoan a legal system that has long favoured the rich and influential.
SOURCES
  • (Sources: Sunday Mail (Adelaide) 28/07/2002)