Lawyers contend Soeharto can't remember his name
JAKARTA (JP): After maintaining for months that their client was unfit to face questioning, lawyers for Soeharto now claim that the 79-year-old former president is finding it difficult to even remember his own name.
Juan Felix Tampubolon claimed on Thursday that Soeharto found it difficult to comprehend even simple questions and thus it was not suitable for him to undergo a trying legal process.
"Pak Harto cannot comprehend the details of the charges against him... He cannot defend himself before a trial because of the malady. So he cannot fulfill the minimum criteria required to bring someone to court," Tampubolon told The Jakarta Post.
Soeharto underwent another round of questioning on Thursday at his residence on Jl. Cendana in Central Jakarta, the seventh time since April.
Soeharto was named a suspect for allegedly abusing his power to amass billions of dollars in funds for his charitable foundations by issuing presidential decrees and regulations.
State prosecutors posed five questions on Thursday in a less than 20-minute session about the reimbursement and use of the foundations' funds.
Speaking to journalists after the questioning, Tampubolon said Soeharto could not answer any of the questions since they related to events which happened 15 years ago.
Tampubolon claimed that his client even found it difficult to remember his own name.
"Pak Harto appeared confused when asked his name. When he managed to reply, he said: 'Muhammad', then followed by 'Haj'," Tampubolon said, referring to the Haj title usually used by a Muslim who has completed the holy pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Muhammad is the name Soeharto adopted after his pilgrimage.
Prosecutors asked for confirmation of Soeharto's name as they found several versions of it in several documents relating to the foundations.
Tampubolon also said that an independent medical team from Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) confirmed on Thursday that the result of a brain scan corroborated initial examinations conducted by Soeharto's medical team which state that Soeharto was suffering a condition equivalent to brain damage.
"By that, the state doctors are confirming that Pak Harto is suffering brain damage and as a result cannot be responsible for the things he says," Tampubolon argued.
However, the head of the RSCM team of doctors, Supardi Sudibyo, said he was not entitled to determine or make assumptions on Soeharto's ability to face questioning and other legal processes.
"We are just making an assessment of his health examination... Furthermore, such assumptions depend on who gets the medical report," he told the Post at his office.
Attorney General Marzuki Darusman has set a deadline of Aug. 10 for his office to complete its investigation into the Soeharto case.
Sources at the Attorney General's Office claim that the dossier on Soeharto is 80 percent complete and contains testimony from more than 100 witnesses.
Separately, Attorney General's Office spokesman Yushar Yahya announced that 12 witnesses in connection with the Soeharto case would be sworn in on Friday before giving testimony, thereby ensuring that whatever they said could later be brought to trial, whether they attended or not.
The measure was taken due to the age of the witnesses, who are all in their 70s and are mostly management executives of Soeharto's foundations. (bby)