A decision by British authorities to unfreeze 36 million euro worth of funds belonging to Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra has been slammed by experts back home.

Critics said Sunday the move demonstrated the RI government did not have the skill or determination to handle sophisticated money laundering cases and claim back state money from abroad.

This decision, seen as another victory for Tommy, completes a series of failures at the Attorney General's Office (AGO) after losing the Clove Marketing and Buffer Agency (BPPC) graft case and the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) case, collectively costing the state around Rp 1.26 billion in losses. The Vista Bella case, another implicating the youngest son of former president Soeharto, also saw the government fold and allegedly lose around Rp 4 trillion.

"The government just doesn't have the competency to pursue a sophisticated case such as one involving money laundering at an international level. Considering the huge amounts of money involved, the AGO should form a team of internationally-recognized legal advisors," noted lawyer Frans H. Winarta said.

He argued that the fact the government did not employee top lawyers in the field indicated they did not take such cases seriously.

"We are talking about trillions of rupiah here, and we don't even have the ability to close the case successfully. Logically, it would make sense for the government to spend billions of rupiah hiring top-quality lawyers so they could claim back the money," the University of Indonesia's legal expert Irman Putra Sidin said.

Guernsey High Court ruled Saturday to accept a request from Tommy's company, Garnet Investment Limited, to unfreeze 36 million euro (US$48 million) of company money deposited in the Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) Paribas after it found no evidence the money originated from corrupt activities in Indonesia.

In the same ruling, the court ordered the Indonesian government to gather evidence and trace Tommy's money to strengthen allegations of corruption against him.

Frans said the failure of the AGO to prove Tommy embezzled state money in the BPPC case and the Vista Bella case were the reason behind the British court's decision.

"If the government wants to seek an appeal against the decision then it has to prove that Tommy was involved in corrupt activities," he said.

State lawyer Yoseph Suardi Sabda said the government would appeal the decision with the British Supreme Court.

"We have a month or two to prepare for an appeal," he said.

After allegations by the AGO that Tommy had obtained money through corruption, a British lower court froze 36 million euros from his accounts on May 23, 2007.

The AGO and Bulog sued Tommy over a 1995 land transaction deal between the logistics agency and Tommy's company Goro that cost the state Rp 550 billion in losses.

However, the South Jakarta District Court ruled in February that Bulog had no legal grounds for the case, instead ordered the state agency pay Rp 5 billion for damaging Tommy's business reputation.

The government reached a settlement on March 19 after Bulog dropped its appeal against the court ruling.

The out-of-court-settlement saw Tommy pay Bulog Rp 23 billion in rental fees for land used by his company PT Goro Batara Sakti. He was also required to drop the Rp 5 billion compensation fee Bulog was ordered to pay based on the verdict handed down in February.

The government was forced to drop the BPPC investigation case against Tommy after he was declared not guilty of running a monopoly, and even returned some of the money they had confiscated on the grounds it was allegedly obtained illegally.

The government also seemed to have difficulties recovering state money in the Vista Bella case after the AGO could not gather enough evidence to prove state funds had been misappropriated by Tommy.

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