(11/20/2006)
Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the recently paroled youngest son of Indonesia's former President Suharto, is lined up for yet another court date, this time in the civil courts of Bali to face a suit filed by Bali farmers seeking compensation for land they claimed was swindled away by a Company owned by "Tommy" to develop a massive 74-hectare tourism project on the Nusa Dua Peninsula.
The farmers who lost their lands in the early 1990s are asking for Rp. 171 billion (US$19 million) in compensation from Suharto's Son.
Convicted and imprisoned only after a massive nation-wide manhunt, "Tommy" Suharto served an abbreviated sentence of several years from an initial sentence of 15 years for his role in the assassination of a Supreme Court judge who made a judicial decision that disfavored the now-disgraced Indonesian businessman.
The project which forms the focus of the farmer's complaints is in the Pecatu area of South Bali and includes hotels, residential development, shopping outlets and a controversial golf course [See: Government Calls Temporary Halt to Pecatu Golf Project].
Work on the project, halted during the financial crisis which has plagued Indonesia since the late 1990s, was recently recommenced.
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