Indonesia is investigating whether millions of dollars deposited in a British territory by a son of former President Suharto were obtained illegally, officials said yesterday.
Jakarta was drawn into the case after Garnet Investment a company owned by Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra sued a branch of French bank BNP Paribas for refusing to release at least 36 million euros ($46.7 million) it had deposited.
A court in Guernsey, a British territory, has approved the Indonesian government's request to be a third party in the case, said Indonesia's Ambassador to Britain, Marty Natalegawa.
The government suspects the money was obtained through corruption, said Salman Maryadi, the spokesman for the attorney-general's office.
Attorney-General Abdul Rahman Saleh said he had evidence that Tommy opened the account at BNP Paribas shortly after his father resigned as president amid civil unrest in May 1998, according to The Jakarta Post.
Tommy, 44, was conditionally released from jail last October, after serving a third of his original sentence for plotting the murder of a Supreme Court judge who had convicted him in a graft case.
Some of his businesses had been linked to political influence such as a monopoly on highly lucrative clove distribution and a national car project.
