The health of the Indonesian ex-dictator Suharto improved yesterday, a day after he suffered multiple organ failure, as the government said it wanted to settle a graft case against him out of court.
The 86-year-old former president, who stepped down a decade ago after 32 years of often brutal rule in the world's fourth most populous nation, was admitted to hospital on Jan. 4 with heart, kidney and lung problems.
His condition has since fluctuated before dramatically worsening on Friday evening, when he was connected to a ventilator to stay alive.
PHOTO: AP
But Marjo Soebiandono, one of the doctors in the large team of experts assembled to treat Suharto, said that as of 8am yesterday, the patient's general condition was "better" and that he had regained consciousness.
"When I asked him whether it hurt, he shook his head," he said, adding however that he showed signs of infection in his lungs and his hemoglobin levels were falling.
"The team of doctors will continue to make intensive efforts to improve his general condition by giving blood transfusions, medication for his lung infection and balancing the liquids in his body," he said at a briefing.
Meanwhile, the attorney general announced that the government wanted to settle a pending civil corruption case against Suharto -- who is accused of massive graft while in power -- with his family out of court.
"We have offered a deal to Suharto's family ... that the civil case will be settled out of the court," Attorney General Hendarman Supanji said, adding that the family, represented by Suharto's eldest daughter Tutut, would decide as soon as possible.
He said he had been ordered by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to make the approach. Under Indonesian law, if a defendant dies during such a civil suit, his or her family must instead defend the case.
A criminal case against Suharto was abandoned in 2006 due to his persistent poor health but the civil suit, launched last year, was seeking US$1.4 billion in damages and returned stolen assets skimmed off the foundation.
Suharto's allies called earlier in the week for the case to be abandoned but they were rebuffed by the attorney general.
Suharto has been called the 20th century's worst kleptocrats but has rejected allegations that he and his family were sitting on a fortune of between US$15 billion and US$35 billion.
Investigations into several other charitable foundations that Suharto chaired have been ongoing. It was not clear whether these would continue.
Yudhoyono himself rushed back to the country yesterday from Malaysia, where he cut short an official visit by several hours.
The president was briefed at Halim airbase on his return by a member of the team of doctors who treated Suharto, Christian Johannes, a news agency reported.
Indonesian Vice President Yusuf Kalla went to Suharto's side on Friday, joining the ex-strongman's six children and his extended family. In Yudhoyono's absence, Kalla would have been authorized to announce his death, according to protocol.
In Central Java's Solo, where Suharto's family graves lie, identification cards have reportedly been prepared for the media to cover his eventual funeral.
"This is just in anticipation ... because we see what conditions are like," said the district military command's spokesman, Baso Syukri, according to online news portal Detikcom.
TV showed footage of soldiers and workers scurrying to ready the area surrounding the grave.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
DEFIANT: Ukraine and the EU voiced concern that ICC member Mongolia might not execute an international warrant for Putin’s arrest over war crimes in Ukraine Russian President Vladimir Putin was yesterday visiting Mongolia with no sign that the host country would bow to calls to arrest him on an international warrant for alleged war crimes stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The trip is Putin’s first to a member country of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since it issued the warrant about 18 months ago. Ahead of his visit, Ukraine called on Mongolia to hand Putin over to the court in The Hague, and the EU expressed concern that Mongolia might not execute the warrant. A spokesperson for Putin last week said that the Kremlin