JAKARTA The youngest son of former president Suharto defied authorities and failed to turn himself in for imprisonment by late Monday, just hours before his deadline expired, with his lawyers demanding to see original legal documents, AFP reported.
"I'm not going to surrender my client because what has been given to us is only the photocopy of the presidential decree rejecting the clemency appeal," lawyer Nudirman Munir, who represents Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, told journalists.
"We want the original one," he said, speaking after the chief of the neighborhood where Tommy lives handed over the copy of the presidential decree to him.
He was referring to the decree signed by President Abdurrahman Wahid who on Thursday rejected a demand for a pardon, and seemingly exhausted Tommy's legal moves to remain at liberty.
He said he will only wait until 5:00 p.m. (1000 GMT) for the document and if received after that, then his client would only show up Tuesday.
But it was just the latest twist in the saga since the supreme court handed down an 18-month jail term for corruption on Tommy and his business partner Richard Gelael on September 22.
Despite the sentence, Tommy has remained free while Gelael turned himself in late Friday to start his jail term.
If jailed, Tommy married with one child after once being known as a ladies' man would be the first in the family to be put behind bars since his father stepped down amid mass demonstrations in May 1998.
Tommy, along with five other Suharto siblings, control some of the country's biggest conglomerates, obtained by using their father's power prior to his fall.