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Tommy's (above) lawyer told reporters that her client would countersue Bulog and demand compensation of one trillion rupiah. -- PHOTO: AP
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JAKARTA - AN INDONESIAN court on Monday ruled that it had authority to hear a case filed by the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) against ex-dictator Suharto's youngest son, Tommy, over a land scam.
Bulog has accused firm Goro Batara Sakti and its former president Tommy - whose full name is Hutomo Mandala Putra Suharto - of jointly causing losses to the state agency following a land exchange deal between Bulog and Goro in 1995.
Bulog is seeking 550 billion rupiah (S$86 million) in material and immaterial damages.
'Because the suit filed is one concerning a breach of the law and not one concerning bankruptcy ... then it is within the authority of the South Jakarta state district court to hear and try this case,' Judge Haswandi told the court.
Mr Haswandi said witnesses would take the stand in one week.
Bulog claims that Goro, a now defunct supermarket business, gave it a worthless swamp in North Jakarta in return for prime land to build a superstore.
Tommy's lawyer Kaprita Ampera told reporters that her client would countersue Bulog and demand compensation of one trillion rupiah.
'It is Bulog which has breached the law and caused material and immaterial losses to my client,' Ms Ampera said, though she did not say the grounds on which he was suing.
Tommy is separately facing a civil lawsuit brought by Indonesian prosecutors seeking to recover state losses over the land scam.
The transaction cost the state 95.4 billion rupiah.
Another GBS executive is also being sued, along with Bulog and its former chairman.
The same court is set to rule on Wednesday whether it has the authority to hear the civil lawsuit.
In 2000, Tommy was sentenced to 18 months' jail and fined 30 billion rupiah in connection with the transaction - making him the first Suharto to be convicted of corruption.
He went on the run however after he tried and failed to win a presidential pardon. The conviction was later overturned.
Tommy was eventually jailed for ordering the slaying of a Supreme Court judge who had convicted him in the case.
He was freed last year after serving one-third of his 15-year sentence for the killing. -- AFP
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