Soeharto ready for checkup: Marzuki

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)