Time Magazine appeals $100 million Suharto libel ruling
By Seth Mydans Published: February 21, 2008
BANGKOK: Time Magazine filed an appeal Thursday in Indonesia of a court ruling awarding former President Suharto more than $100 million in damages over an article about what the United Nations calls one of the most gargantuan thefts of our time.
Ruling last August, the court said that Time had libeled Suharto by reporting that he and his family had amassed a fortune of least $15 billion in money and assets stolen from the country he governed.
"If it stands, the decision will threaten press freedom and erode the strength of democratic institutions in Indonesia," the magazine said Thursday.
Its appeal is the first major court action involving Suharto's wealth since he died last month at the age of 86, and it comes when Indonesia seems to be recovering from a sentimental glow that surrounded him during his three-week illness.
More voices are heard now demanding an accounting for the human rights abuses of his 32-year rule, which ended in May 1998. And a civil suit involving his stolen wealth is continuing in a musty Jakarta courtroom, with his heirs now taking his place as defendants.
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"The mourning period is over, and people are beginning to see Suharto in a more objective and proportional perspective," said the Time lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, in an interview by telephone from Jakarta.
"There are two faces of Suharto, like it or not," Lubis said. "Of course, people regard him as a pioneer of development. But there is also the legacy of human rights violations and the legacy of corruption, collusion and nepotism."
In a report last June, the United Nations put Suharto at the top of a list of national leaders who had stolen their nations' money while in office. It quoted Transparency International, the global countercorruption organization, as estimating his wealth at $15 billion to $35 billion.
The ruling against Time came as a shock to many people, overturning two lower court rulings that had acquitted the magazine. It led to speculation that the retired dictator was using his wealth to manipulate the court system as he had during his years in power.
"It was ridiculous," said Jusuf Wanandi, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta. "I'm sure there was hanky-panky going on. I suspect that he paid them off."
Suharto appears to have gloated a little at his coup against his critics. He himself had slipped away from his legal pursuers.
After he was forced from power by a popular uprising, he evaded criminal prosecution for corruption, with doctors and lawyers telling the courts that he was too ill and mentally diminished to face trial.
During a decade in seclusion, he made few public statements and gave few interviews. But last October, soon after the Time verdict, he offered a peek into his thoughts in an interview with a reporter for the magazine Gatra, which is owned by one of his friends.
Gatra: "How do you feel when you are accused of corruption?" Suharto laughed and then said: "Let it go. Let them say what they want. It is all empty talk. Let them accuse me. The fact is I have never committed corruption. Then I got one trillion."
One trillion rupiah (or about $110 million at today's exchange rate) is the amount the Supreme Court awarded to him in its ruling against Time.
In a cover article in May 1999, Time said Suharto and his six hugely wealthy children had amassed more than $15 billion, transferring much of it to Switzerland and then to Austria. The article, headlined "Suharto Inc.," said much of the wealth was in holdings in Indonesia including property, toll roads, mining, banking and petrochemicals.
Suharto first filed his lawsuit with two Jakarta courts, both of which ruled in the magazine's favor.
Then those decisions were overturned by a panel of three Supreme Court judges, including a retired general who had once said he owed his career to Suharto.
In addition to the fine, the court demanded that six Time employees apologize in leading Indonesian publications as well as in the pages of their own magazine.
The appeal Thursday asked a new panel of Supreme Court judges to reinstate the lower court rulings acquitting the magazine. It quoted the initial decision by the Central Jakarta District Court, which said the article was balanced, responsibly reported and published in the public interest.
"The court's judgment was a blow to the rights of a free press in Indonesia," said Michael Elliott, editor of Time International. "It also undermines the reform efforts undertaken by Indonesia's democratically elected government."
www.iht.com/articles/2008...a/indo.php
By Seth Mydans Published: February 21, 2008
BANGKOK: Time Magazine filed an appeal Thursday in Indonesia of a court ruling awarding former President Suharto more than $100 million in damages over an article about what the United Nations calls one of the most gargantuan thefts of our time.
Ruling last August, the court said that Time had libeled Suharto by reporting that he and his family had amassed a fortune of least $15 billion in money and assets stolen from the country he governed.
"If it stands, the decision will threaten press freedom and erode the strength of democratic institutions in Indonesia," the magazine said Thursday.
Its appeal is the first major court action involving Suharto's wealth since he died last month at the age of 86, and it comes when Indonesia seems to be recovering from a sentimental glow that surrounded him during his three-week illness.
More voices are heard now demanding an accounting for the human rights abuses of his 32-year rule, which ended in May 1998. And a civil suit involving his stolen wealth is continuing in a musty Jakarta courtroom, with his heirs now taking his place as defendants.
Today in Asia - Pacific
Pakistan opposition coalition is setback for Musharraf and U.S.Kimchi goes to space, along with first Korean astronautTaiwan party pledges a new civility
"The mourning period is over, and people are beginning to see Suharto in a more objective and proportional perspective," said the Time lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, in an interview by telephone from Jakarta.
"There are two faces of Suharto, like it or not," Lubis said. "Of course, people regard him as a pioneer of development. But there is also the legacy of human rights violations and the legacy of corruption, collusion and nepotism."
In a report last June, the United Nations put Suharto at the top of a list of national leaders who had stolen their nations' money while in office. It quoted Transparency International, the global countercorruption organization, as estimating his wealth at $15 billion to $35 billion.
The ruling against Time came as a shock to many people, overturning two lower court rulings that had acquitted the magazine. It led to speculation that the retired dictator was using his wealth to manipulate the court system as he had during his years in power.
"It was ridiculous," said Jusuf Wanandi, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta. "I'm sure there was hanky-panky going on. I suspect that he paid them off."
Suharto appears to have gloated a little at his coup against his critics. He himself had slipped away from his legal pursuers.
After he was forced from power by a popular uprising, he evaded criminal prosecution for corruption, with doctors and lawyers telling the courts that he was too ill and mentally diminished to face trial.
During a decade in seclusion, he made few public statements and gave few interviews. But last October, soon after the Time verdict, he offered a peek into his thoughts in an interview with a reporter for the magazine Gatra, which is owned by one of his friends.
Gatra: "How do you feel when you are accused of corruption?" Suharto laughed and then said: "Let it go. Let them say what they want. It is all empty talk. Let them accuse me. The fact is I have never committed corruption. Then I got one trillion."
One trillion rupiah (or about $110 million at today's exchange rate) is the amount the Supreme Court awarded to him in its ruling against Time.
In a cover article in May 1999, Time said Suharto and his six hugely wealthy children had amassed more than $15 billion, transferring much of it to Switzerland and then to Austria. The article, headlined "Suharto Inc.," said much of the wealth was in holdings in Indonesia including property, toll roads, mining, banking and petrochemicals.
Suharto first filed his lawsuit with two Jakarta courts, both of which ruled in the magazine's favor.
Then those decisions were overturned by a panel of three Supreme Court judges, including a retired general who had once said he owed his career to Suharto.
In addition to the fine, the court demanded that six Time employees apologize in leading Indonesian publications as well as in the pages of their own magazine.
The appeal Thursday asked a new panel of Supreme Court judges to reinstate the lower court rulings acquitting the magazine. It quoted the initial decision by the Central Jakarta District Court, which said the article was balanced, responsibly reported and published in the public interest.
"The court's judgment was a blow to the rights of a free press in Indonesia," said Michael Elliott, editor of Time International. "It also undermines the reform efforts undertaken by Indonesia's democratically elected government."
www.iht.com/articles/2008...a/indo.php



