Jakarta – Indonesia's Attorney-General has reopened the corruption case against former president Suharto, who seems well enough to give his eldest daughter the green light to run for president.
The A-G Office has called for another medical examination on the former leader. Doctors from the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) have been asked to carry out the job.
Deputy Attorney-General for Special Crimes Sudhono Iswahyudi said the order was issued on Dec 15 to the South Jakarta prosecutor's office to send a team of doctors to examine Suharto.
Despite an earlier medical report suggesting that Suharto was unlikely to regain his full faculties, Mr Sudhono said that the move had been taken in the light of media reports saying that the former president was actually in good health.
Mr Juan Felix Tampubolon, Suharto's lawyer, questioned the prosecutors' move to reassess his client's health.
"Earlier examinations showed that my client suffered permanent brain damage. Don't they have other things to do?" he asked, adding that all the prosecutors had to do was check his client's medical records.
In August 2002, a team of 20 physicians from the RSCM had declared that Suharto was suffering from aphasia – total or partial loss of the ability to use and understand words.
Team leader Akmal Taher said that the former president was incapable of putting more than four words together and could not understand long sentences as he had suffered "permanent brain damage due to his previous medical history of strokes". Suharto's sickness limited his ability to communicate with others, the team concluded.
However, Suharto had twice visited his youngest son, Hutomo 'Tommy' Mandala Putra, who is serving a 15-year jail term on the Nusakambangan prison island off Java. Tommy was jailed for ordering the murder of a Supreme Court justice.
Recently, Mr R. Hartono, a retired general who leads the Concern for the Nation Functional Party, disclosed that Suharto, when consulted, had made suggestions regarding the name of the party. He had also remarked on the party's nomination of his daughter, Ms Siti "Tutut" Hardiyanti Rukmana, as its candidate in the presidential election.
Prosecutors accuse Suharto of enriching himself and his relatives to the tune of US$600 million in state funds plundered through a complex web of tax-free charitable foundations that he controlled.
His high-profile team of lawyers managed to convince the court that their client was too ill to stand trial. But the Supreme Court has ruled that prosecutors may bring the case back to court if and when his health improves.