JAKARTA, INDONESIA - The youngest son of late Indonesian dictator Suharto defended his "honour" on Tuesday as he sued national carrier Garuda for an article in its in-flight magazine which called him a murderer.

Hutomo Mandala Putra, popularly known as Tommy Suharto, served only four years of a 15-year prison term for ordering the murder of a supreme court judge in 2001.

Tommy is demanding an apology from state-owned Garuda and the publishers of its in-flight magazine, which referred to him as a murderer in a 2009 article about a resort he owns on Bali.

Lawyer Ferry Firman Nurwahyu said the remark came in a footnote which had "no relevance to the title or the content of the article".

"Tommy Suharto felt the note was ethically-defective and insensitive as it attacked his honour, dignity and privacy," he said.

Tommy is demanding a public apology in the magazine as well as three national newspapers.

A playboy with a taste for flashy cars, Tommy enjoyed privileged access to lucrative business deals before the Asian financial crisis triggered his father's downfall in 1998.

The murdered judge, Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, had sentenced Tommy to 18 months in jail for corruption.

Military strongman Suharto died of natural causes in January, 2008, a decade after resigning from office following 32 years of autocratic and corrupt rule.