Jakarta – Lawyers of former Indonesian president Suharto have turned to the UN human rights commission in a bid to end his house arrest and weekly questioning, reports said Monday.

Lawyers Juan Felix Tampubolon and Otto Cornelis Kaligis told the daily Kompas newspaper they filed a "human rights abuse" complaint against the Indonesian Attorney General's office with the Geneva-based commission last Thursday.

"Mr. Suharto is sick ... he is suffering from permanent brain damage and [his personal] doctors have said the same thing," Kompas quoted Tampubolon as saying.

"Mr. Suharto is not fit to be questioned due to his health but the attorney general's office still insists on questioning him ... and this is a human rights abuse," he said. Neither Tampubolon and Kaligis could be immediately reached for confirmation.

The Attorney General's office has had the 79-year-old Suharto under house arrest since May 29, and barred him from leaving Jakarta since April 12 in a move prosecutors said was aimed at facilitating his weekly questioning.

The investigation of Suharto on suspicion of corruption during his 32 years in power was closed last year the former government of president BJ Habibie, but later reopened by Attorney General Marzuki Darusman. Under the probe, Suharto is undergoing weekly questioning by officials from the attorney general's office.

Tampubolon said the UN human rights commission was "the most perfect" institution for them to report the alleged rights abuse. "Indonesia is one of the members of the UN as well as one of the signatories of the UN human rights charter ... so that's why we filed our complaints to them," he said.

"We have submitted all necessary documents such as the one that is related to the house arrest status of Mr. Suharto. We have reported everything that has happened ... but excluding the [state prosecutors'] questioning materials," he added.

Tampubolon said he would also take Suharto's case to Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) "as soon as possible."

Suharto has lost two cases in court this month, one demanding the lifting of the house arrest order and another, a libel suit against US Time magazine over a May 1999 report on the alleged wealth of the former president and his family.

Suharto's lawyers have repeatedly stressed Suharto's health problems to avoid summons for questioning or to shorten or prevent questioning sessions.

But Suharto, hospitalized twice last year for an intestinal bleeding and a mild stroke, on Saturday underwent a brain scan which revealed that his brain cells were not damaged.