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JAKARTA - A LAWYER for the son of late Indonesian president Suharto said Wednesday he would file a suit in the British dependency of Guernsey seeking the release of millions of dollars in frozen assets.
Mr Otto Cornelius Kaligis said that Hutomo 'Tommy' Mandala Putra Suharto would file evidence in a Guernsey court to block a move by Indonesia's government to extend a freeze on a BNP Paribas account belonging to his client.
'We will file the evidence before May 13 in the Guernsey court to counter the government's allegations that my client was involved in corruption,' Mr Kaligis said.
Jakarta this week launched a civil corruption suit against the late dictator's reputed favourite son, alleging he misappropriated more than 400 million dollars (S$545.9 million) while running a business that imported South Korean cars and changed their labels to make them appear as if they were made in Indonesia.
Prosecutors allege Tommy avoided repaying a state loan to his car company PT Timor by illegally selling company assets to another one of his companies during the Asian financial crisis.
Authorities want the 36 million euros in the BNP Paribas account to be seized if their case is successful.
State prosecutor Yosef Suardi Sabda said the government had sent an affidavit to the Guernsey court on May 2 to request the assets remained frozen.
An Indonesian court in February rejected a separate corruption case against Tommy, awarding him 550,000 dollars in a countersuit.
One of six children, Tommy served just a third of a 15-year jail term for ordering the murder of a Supreme Court judge in July 2002. He was released in October 2006.
His high-rolling career did not survive the collapse of his father's dictatorship in 1998.
Suharto died aged 86 in January, having never been brought to trial over persistent allegations of graft involving billions of dollars during his 32-year rule. -- AFP
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