Soeharto ready for checkup: Marzuki

JAKARTA (JP): Former president Soeharto is expected to appear at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital on Wednesday evening for a medical examination to be conducted by a team of doctors appointed by the Attorney General's Office.

Facing a stern demonstration at his office, Attorney General Marzuki Darusman told student protesters on Tuesday that Soeharto, a suspect in a high-profile corruption case, had agreed to have his health checked.

"This measure means that we have taken a step in the investigation and it shows that the medical team is working," he said, denying accusations that his office was slow in handling the case.

Last week, doctors failed to appear at Soeharto's residence for a medical reexamination of the ailing former ruler.

Marzuki, however, refused to identify the doctors, saying they had received threats and pressure from certain parties that might prevent the medical examination.

The deputy attorney general for corruption, Chairul Imam, said that the medical team comprises six or seven doctors and their names were kept secret in order "to enable them to work undisturbed".

Some 100 protesters who claimed to represent the Students Forum for Reform and Democracy (Famred) staged their second rally in two weeks to push the Attorney General's Office to bring Soeharto and his cronies to justice as soon as possible.

Soeharto has been named a suspect by the Attorney General's Office, overruling a decision by Marzuki's predecessor, Ismudjoko, who suspended the investigation last October due to a lack of evidence.

The 78-year-old former president failed to answer the summons to appear at the Attorney General's Office last month due to his alleged ill-health.

His lawyers earlier insisted that Soeharto was not medically fit to undergo questioning.

One of Soeharto's defense lawyers, Juan Felix Tampubolon, said on Tuesday night that he was not aware of the date set for his client's medical exam.

"But if the doctors asked for a medical checkup, we would first ask our client's medical team whether the examination is necessary.

"If it is necessary than we would ask for our client's agreement to undergo the examination. Even if he agreed, it should only be conducted at the proper time, they cannot just rush in," Tampubolon told The Jakarta Post.

Members of the House of Representatives Commission IX for financial and development planning affairs also tried to meet Soeharto last month at his residence on Jl. Cendana, Central Jakarta, in a bid to question him over possible abuses in channeling liquidity support from Bank Indonesia to local banks, which were owned by his friends and relatives.

Soeharto has been accused of amassing a fortune during his three decades in office.

U.S. business magazine Forbes last year estimated Soeharto's family fortune at some US$4 billion. Time magazine, which Soeharto is suing, has put the figure at about $15 billion. (01)