JAKARTA (Antara): Indonesian prosecutors have named the son of former President Soeharto a suspect in a Rp 175 billion ($19 million) graft case involving a lucrative clove monopoly, the attorney general said Thursday.
"We've revived the case with Tommy Soeharto as our suspect," said Attorney General Hendarman Supandji.
In the 1990s, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, youngest son of the former autocratic leader, chaired an agency tasked with regulating the trade of cloves, a key ingredient of popular local cigarettes.
The government released soft loans to the agency so that it could buy cloves directly from farmers in a bid to improve their livelihoods.
"But he was found to have misused loan money given to the agency to buy cloves from farmers," Hendarman said.
The Attorney General said his office was gathering final documents prior to filing the case with court.
Elza Syarief, Tommy's lawyer, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Prosecutors filed a civil suit against Soeharto last week seeking to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in state funds allegedly misused by one of the former president's charitable foundations.
Soeharto, who stepped down in 1998 following enormous people demonstrations, was charged with graft but escaped prosecution after he was reckoned too ill to stand trial.
The former president and family members deny any wrongdoing.
Since President Yudhoyono's high-profile graft campaign began, officials ranging from a former religious affairs minister to the Governor of Aceh province have been jailed on corruption charges.
The anti-graft drive is being closely watched after critics say it has failed to take on some powerful vested interests.
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