The grandson of ex-president Suharto has been arrested on weapons charges, the latest member of the superrich family to be targeted in the hunt for the former dictator's fugitive son, police said on Tuesday. Ari Sigit was arrested at his central Jakarta home on Monday night and was being questioned at police headquarters on Tuesday, the office of police spokesman Col. Anton Bahrul Alam said.
Officers found 70 handgun bullets at his residence but there was no sign of his missing uncle, Hutomo Tommy Mandala Putra. Tommy has been on the run since he was convicted of corruption last year and sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Last week, police accused Tommy of ordering the assassination of the judge who sentenced him and masterminding a bombing campaign in the capital. He has also been implicated in the Jakarta Stock Exchange bombing which killed 15 people. On Monday, officers interrogated Tommy's wife over her husband's whereabouts. Last week, detectives questioned two of the fugitive's sisters.
Human rights groups claim that top army generals are helping Tommy evade capture by providing him with information about the police investigation. They say the generals are afraid that if the Suharto family can be punished for corruption, then the military chiefs who backed the former autocrat's 32-year regime could also face prosecution for human rights abuses and graft.
Last September, the Supreme Court convicted Tommy in a multimillion dollar real estate scam. But he was not jailed immediately, and vanished in November after an arrest warrant was issued.
Bureau Report