State-appointed doctors to examine Soeharto

State-appointed doctors to examine Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): A team of doctors appointed by the Attorney
General's office will visit former President Soeharto Monday
morning to verify a medical report that the he is incapable of
fulfilling a summons for questioning over his alleged corruption.

"I have already signed the instruction letter for the medical
team to carry out a direct examination on Pak Harto on Monday,"
Attorney General Marzuki Darusman told The Jakarta Post by
telephone on Saturday.

When asked whether the examination would be carried out at
Soeharto's residence, Marzuki said: "It is a technical matter
because (Soeharto) could also be requested to appear at a
hospital."

Soeharto has been named a suspect by the Attorney General's
office in a probe into alleged corruption during his 32-year
rule.

Marzuki has said earlier that the decision whether to impose
house arrest on Soeharto would be taken as soon as the medical
team has been able to determine the former president's state of
health.

One of Soeharto's defense lawyers, Juan Felix Tampubolon,
submitted on Thursday a detailed medical report to the Attorney
General's office on his clients health.

Tampubolon has repeatedly claimed pleaded that his client is
medically unfit to undergo questioning.

The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) said, however, that a
medical report would only be valid for a limited time.

"A person's state of health can change over time so that a
medical report would only be valid for a certain period," IDI
said in a statement signed by its chairman Merdias Almatsier and
secretary-general Hasbullah Thabrany.

Two weeks ago the 78-year-old former strongman failed to
answer a summons at the Attorney General's office on the grounds
that he is ill.

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