Suharto land to be searched for son

Prosecutors are to search the family estate of the former Indonesian president Suharto in the hunt for his millionaire fugitive son, on the run from a jail sentence for corruption.

Prosecutors are to search the family estate of the former Indonesian president Suharto in the hunt for his millionaire fugitive son, on the run from a jail sentence for corruption.

The Attorney General, Marzuki Darusman, said yesterday he believed Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra was hiding out at his home, part of the triangular estate known as Cendana, after the street Suharto's home is on in central Jakarta.

"Our first search will focus on Tommy's official address," the detik.com news site quoted Mr Darusman as saying. "If he is not there, we will prioritise searching the area surrounding it," he said.

Mr Darusman did not say if Suharto's olive-green mansion, where the ailing former general - himself the focus of corruption allegations - leads a reclusive life, would be searched.

It is the most serious attempt to find Tommy since he disappeared on Friday in the latest episode of what has become Indonesia's most gripping soap opera, charting the downfall of a once powerful family.

But the Suhartos remain formidable opponents, helped by many influential allies including government officials, as they fight to survive the onslaught of recriminations over years of misrule. Tommy has been on the run since prosecutors arrived at his house on Friday to take him to Cipinang prison to begin an 18-month sentence for graft over an $11m (£7.6m) land scam. ( Reuters)