Jakarta – Indonesia's first democratically-elected government will put its reform image on the line Thursday by bringing former president Suharto to trial for corruption. The case will open amid doubts that the former strongman will show up at the court, and assurances of a pardon if found guilty.

As workers were busy preparing the venue – an auditorium of a ministry building in South Jakarta – lawyers of the former president left a decision on whether Suharto will actually sit in the defendant's chair to the last minute.

Lawyer Juan Felix Tampubolon said Suharto's private team of doctors will decide three hours ahead of the trial's opening at 10am Thursday whether or not he will appear. The government' own team of doctors, he said, would be given the opportunity to dispute any "unfit" verdict issued by Suharto's doctors.

Suharto, now 79, faces charges of stealing 571 million dollars from the state by funnelling money from huge tax-free charity foundations he ran into the businesses of family and friends.

Indonesia's autocratic ruler of 32 years, the former army general could face a maximum sentence of life – were it not for the promised pardon. Bringing Suharto to court has been one of the main pegs of the country's reform drive that followed his fall.

Suharto' hand-picked successor, his protege B.J. Habibie, attempted to halt the official graft probe on him in 1999. But the case was reopened months later by the government of the country's first democratically-elected president, Abdurrahman Wahid. However, Wahid has pledged a complete pardon – on condition Suharto first stand trial.

Suharto's health condition, repeatedly used in the past by his lawyers to avoid questioning by state prosecutors, "has so far only come from his lawyers' mouths," said leading rights activist Hendardi. His lawyers have said Suharto could no longer express his thoughts coherently and that his memory is failing. Although it was certain that the health of the former president had regressed, "nothing else is sure," said Hendardi, who chairs the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association.

Suharto's secretary, Senior Superintendent Anton Tabah, was pessimistic Suharto would appear in court. "When he was told yesterday about tomorrow's trial, his blood pressure rose from 130 to 160, so doctors are 90 percent certain that Mr. Suharto will not be able to be present," he told the Detikcom online news service.

With no previous history of bringing a head of state to a tribunal, and the recent controversial decision by a Jakarta court to free a main suspect in a multi-million dollar bank scandal, hopes are thin that justice will be served.

"It has been increasingly proven that in many major cases of corruption, collusion and nepotism, the very institutions supposed to uphold the law become the means for the corruptors to free themselves from the trap of the law," said Hendardi.

Hendardi also warned of "planned and systematic" efforts to fight efforts to probe and deal with past corruption cases. He said elements from Suharto's so-called New Order government, were using "money politics, mass mobilization, the creation of political instability and market vulnerability," to divert public attention away from their past misdeeds.

The trial, where attendance will be limited to 400 people, half of them from the media, will also feature a council of five judges instead of the customary three. Chief Judge Lalu Mariyun, who heads the council, said the high number was because of the "thickness" of the dossier and the seriousness of the case.

For the first time since Suharto resigned amid mounting public pressure and widespread protests in May 1998, public shows of support for the ageing former strongman have taken place.

At least three separate demonstrations, all involving previously unknown groups, have taken place this week to protest the trial.

But radical student groups have taken to the streets again to express distrust in the planned trial, and to call for a "People's Tribunal" to judge Suharto, not only for corruption but also for human rights abuses.

The dossier, they say, is thicker still and includes the mass slaughter of communists in the 1960's, the crushing of provincial independence movements, the supression of free speech and the abduction of those who defied him.