Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said Friday he will pardon former president Suharto if a court finds him guilty of corruption and abuse of power during his 32 years in power.

"If Pak Harto (Suharto's popular name) is proven guilty by the court, then I will pardon him because he is a former head of state, a former leader of ours," Wahid told a congregation after Muslim prayers at a mosque in the palace grounds.

He said that every religion, including Islam, provided for punishment for those guilty of crimes and misdeeds, but that the specific punishments were seldom specified. "The punishment could be mental, can be physical," Wahid said, adding that it was the authorities' prerogative to choose what punishment is to be meted out.

In the past, Wahid has said that he would waive a guilty court verdict on Suharto if the former president returned at least part of the money he had allegedly embezzled. In Friday's statement, he made no such condition.

Wahid also said he held no personal grudges against anyone, including Suharto, who had during his rule attempted many times to push Wahid out from the leadership of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Islamic organization. "I do not harbor hatred against anyone. The mistake of one person is the mistake of the whole nation," he said, explaining that the whole nation was at fault for keeping silent over Suharto's mistakes.

Indonesian authorities are seeking to question Suharto, now 78, on curruption allegations connected to his network of charity foundations. Parliamentarians also want to question him over misuse of state funds distributed by the central bank to ailing banks in the months before his fall in May, 1998.

But Suharto's lawyers have pleaded ill health in refusing to allow him to appear for questioning. Suharto was hospitalized twice last year – once for intestinal problems and the second time for a mild stroke. The attorney general has sought to have independent doctors double check Suharto's health to determine if he is fit for questioning.

The former strongman, whose family wealth has been estimated by the US magazine Time at some 15 billion dollars, denies the charges. He has stayed out the public eye since his resignation, remaining mostly at his residence in an upmarket area in Jakarta.