New team of medical doctors to check Soeharto's health

JAKARTA (JP): Attorney General's Office spokesman Yushar Yahya announced on Wednesday that a new team of medical experts would thoroughly examine former president Soeharto before the next session of his corruption trial on Sept. 28, 2000.

Yushar said the independent 24-member team planned to examine Soeharto at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital for two days.

"The medical team has made an examination schedule, but they refuse to reveal the exact dates, fearing public disorder," Yushar told journalists at his office.

One of Soeharto's defense lawyers, Juan Felix Tampubolon, hinted that the examination would be this weekend and would run into Monday.

Meanwhile, a prosecutor who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the examination would be held on Sept. 23 and Sept. 24.

Juan, however, criticized the new medical team's decision to set a date and venue for his client's examination without first asking for the consent of Soeharto's private medical team.

"There should have been coordination between the medical team which has been treating Pak Harto all this time and the new medical team that has been established upon the prosecutors' request," he told journalists after receiving a delegation of prosecutors at his client's residence on Jl. Cendana in Central Jakarta.

The delegation, comprising prosecutors of Soeharto's graft case Muchtar Arifin and Umbu Lage Lozara and South Jakarta Prosecutor Office chief Antasari Azhar, handed over the lineup of the new medical team and the examination schedule to Soeharto.

Juan doubted that Soeharto's private medical team would allow the new team to examine the former ruler.

"During the last brain scan in July, the doctors injected radioactive material into Pak Harto's body. If there is another brain scan, do you think that his private doctors will let him have that injection again?," he asked.

The new medical team, established by the decree of South Jakarta Prosecutor Office chief on Sept. 18, 2000, comprises neurologists, psychiatrists, geriatricians, internists, cardiovascular experts, radiologists, clinical pathologists and medical rehabilitation experts.

Three of the experts are from the Indonesian Medical Doctors Association (IDI), eight from the Jakarta-based University of Indonesia (UI), four from the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University (UGM) and five from the Surabaya-based Airlangga University in East Java. Four others are from the health ministry.

The team is being led by M. Djakaria from UI's School of Medicine. Rusdi Lamsudin from UGM's School of Medicine is his deputy, while IDI's Budi Sampurna is team secretary.

Prosecutor Muchtar said the team members were in Jakarta and were under the protection of the government. (bby)