Suharto son 'offers' to surrender

Tommy lived a lavish lifestyle before his conviction

Tommy Suharto, the fugitive son of Indonesia's former dictator, has offered to hand himself in to face questioning over the murder of a senior judge, a police chief has said.

Jakarta police chief Sofyan Yacub said he was confident Tommy would surrender based on a letter to police from his eldest sister Tutut.

As a criminal who is armed and dangerous, we would automatically shoot to hamper him

Jakarta police spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam

But as a three-day deadline passed for Tommy to turn himself in, police said they would shoot and injure him if he resisted arrest.

The 38-year-old multi-millionaire playboy has been on the run since last November, when he failed to turn himself in for an 18-month prison sentence for corruption.

Police have stepped up efforts to arrest him since publicly linking him with last month's drive-by shooting of a judge who sentenced him. They say two suspects have told them that Tommy Suharto paid them $10,800 to kill Judge Syafiuddin Kartasasmita.

Telephone call

Tommy, whose real name is Hutomo Mandala Putra, is also linked with a series of bomb attacks, including one at the Jakarta Stock Exchange in which 15 people died.

Police have sent out wanted posters

Police are questioning Tommy's sister Tutut, who contacted police on Thursday, as well as another sister, Siti Hediyati Prabowo, and Tommy's wife, Tata.

"Mrs Tutut said Tommy called her at 7am last Tuesday and said he would surrender and he requested a guarantee of security from me," Mr Yacub told reporters.

"So Tutut wrote to me asking for protection and said the family would hand Tommy over as soon as he comes to the family."

Mr Yacub said he would "fully guarantee" Tommy's security.

$54,000 reward

In an interview with privately owned El Shinta radio, Tutut said her brother had called her saying he wanted to surrender to refute the allegations against him. She said she and other members of the family did not know how to contact him.

Jakarta police spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam has said police would not hesitate to shoot Tommy Suharto if he tried to resist arrest.

"As a criminal who is armed and dangerous, we would automatically shoot to hamper him but not to kill," he said.

This week police increased the reward for information on Tommy's whereabouts to $54,000 (50 million rupiah) and gave him three days to hand himself in.

Helicopters have been dropping thousands of wanted posters on Jakarta, showing a picture of Tommy with a beard, which police said he had used for a fake ID under the name Ibrahim.