New team of medical doctors to check Soeharto's health
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)