Triono Wahyu Sudibyo, Semarang – Among the convicts interned at the Nusakambangan Correctional Institution, it’s likely that Hutomo Mandala Putra alias ‘Tommy’ Suharto is the most fortunate. Sentenced to 15 years jail, every year he consistently gets extraordinarily large remissions. But most surprising is that Tommy gets permission to leave the jail every month. Cool!
Data on Tommy in the records of the central government district office of the Department of Justice and Human Rights is indeed an eye-opener. Just imagine, in February alone, Tommy obtained permission to leave Nusakambangan Jail for a total of 13 days in order for him to be treated at the Gatot Subroto general hospital in Jakarta.
“Over one month, Tommy obtained permission [to leave] as many as three times”, said the head of the East Java justice department’s public relations division Bambang Winahyo W. when speaking with Detik.com at his office on Jl. Dr. Cipto in Semarang on Monday March 6.
In the records for February that Bambang showed Detik.com, Tommy obtain permission to go to Jakarta between February 8-13 and February 17-22. Earlier Tommy had also been given permission to leave between January 25-30. In total, Tommy has been able to enjoy freedom for 13 days in a period of one month.
Permission for Tommy to go to Jakarta in March is already in the system. According to the records Tommy already has already been given such permission for March 1-6. So as of today, Tommy is of course still in Jakarta and yet to return to “Hotel Prodeo”.
Tommy has also submitted requests for leave between March 10-13 and March 13-15. If all of these requests are granted, for the month of March Tommy will spend 12 days in Jakarta.
Bambang said that whether or not such a request is granted is very much dependent on the request of a lawyer based on the recommendation of a team of doctors. In Tommy’s case there are two teams of doctors who give such recommendations – a team of doctors at the hospital and a second at the prison.
A request is first submitted to the prison then reported on and confirmed by the Socialisation Monitoring Team. After this it is sent to the department of justice regional offices where the monitoring team also studies the request and decides whether or not to grant permission.
“As long as there is a recommendation from the medical team, the Department of Justice and Human Rights will give its consent for however much time will be needed. If [they] request a month, but on the recommendation of a team of doctors, yeah, we still grant it”, he said. (asy)
[Translated by James Balowski.]
