Mark Landler, Jakarta – The corruption trial of Indonesia's fallen leader, Suharto, got under way here this morning in the converted auditorium of a government ministry building that was crowded with spectators and ringed by police officers, but missing one man: the accused.

Moments before Mr. Suharto was scheduled to appear before the court to answer charges that he siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars for his own use through charitable organizations under his control, lawyers for the 79-year-old former president said he was too ill to attend the hearing.

Mr. Suharto's chief lawyer, Juan-Felix Tampubolon, told the judge that his client had been examined by a team of 23 doctors at his residence in central Jakarta early this morning. The doctors concluded that Mr. Suharto was very ill and could not attend the hearing, he said. The announcement drew a chorus of boos inside and outside the courtroom.

The judge, Lalu Mariyun, adjoured the proceeding and ordered Mr. Suharto's doctors to attend another hearing in two weeks to explain their findings. He also said he would consider the prosecution's request for an independent panel of doctors to re-examine Mr. Suharto.

Guessing whether Mr. Suharto would show up had become a sort of parlor game here in recent days, as demonstrators marched, prosecutors made tough statements, and newspapers mused about his state of mind. Few people were surprised that he pleaded illness.

Even after the tumultuous changes that followed Mr. Suharto's ouster in May 1998, people here are skeptical that their stunted legal system can take on a strongman who ruled this country for 32 years, amassing a vast fortune made Indonesia synonymous with corruption.

The mood in Jakarta turned tense in the hours before Mr. Suharto was scheduled to appear. Late yesterday, a small bomb exploded in an empty bus parked near the building where the trial is set to take place. There were no injuries, but the bus was destroyed. Authorities had moved the trial from the South Jakarta District Court to the Department of Agriculture for security reasons, and to accommodate a large crowd.

The stakes go beyond Mr. Suharto's own future. Legal experts and political analysts said that unless the government successfully prosecutes the former president, Indonesia will never cleanse itself of a legacy of corruption that ranges from financial scandals to military massacres.

"We have to make an example of Suharto," said Umar Juoro, a former adviser to Mr. Suharto's successor, B. J. Habibie. "Bring him into the court, charge him, convict him, and then pardon him if necessary. But we must demonstrate that everybody is the same before the law."

The case against Mr. Suharto was dealt its first setback under former President Habibie, when his government dropped its investigation of him last October, saying it could not turn up enough evidence. That decision drew howls of protest from people here, and it contributed to Mr. Habibie's ignominious withdrawal from the presidential election held later that month.

Mr. Habibie's successor, President Abdurrahman Wahid, swiftly reopened the case. And his prosecutors have steadily tightened the noose around Mr. Suharto – placing him under city arrest in April, house arrest in May, and formally charging him with corruption this month.

Mr. Wahid has promised to pardon Mr. Suharto – but only after he is judged. The president has also suggested that Mr. Suharto could strike a deal by returning money stolen from the state. One of Mr. Wahid's senior advisers, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, began negotiations with members of the Suharto family. But he said today that those talks had been suspended.

Mr. Suharto and his family are accused of building a multibillion-dollar fortune by siphoning state money and steering contracts to family-owned firms. But General Marsuki Darusman, Indonesia's attorney general, has focused on a narrower set of allegations involving seven tax-free foundations under Mr. Suharto's control.

Mr. Suharto's trial is so important because it comes at a time when the struggle for Indonesia's future has shifted from the streets into the courtroom. His case is one of nearly a dozen investigations and prosecutions of people who were officials, cronies, or tycoons in the Suharto era.