Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri will drop multi-million dollar graft charges
against ailing former dictator Suharto, a senior parliamentarian told a news agency.
Pramono Anung, the deputy parliamentary secretary of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), said the president has decided to seek Parliament's approval to abolish the charges on humanitarian grounds.
“That is what she told me this afternoon,” Anung said.
Under Indonesia's constitution, the president can intervene in a case if parliament grants its approval first.
Suharto, 80, is charged with embezzling $ 571 million in state funds during his 32 years as Indonesia's second president.
But his poor health, which has been in decline since he was forced to step down in may 1998, has enabled him to avoid trial.
In September last year the south Jakarta district court aborted the only attempt so far to try the disgraced ex-president, after doctors testified that he had suffered brain damage from an earlier stroke.
Suharto has spent most of the past week in hospital fighting off a bout of pneumonia, during which his lawyers renewed pressure for the charges to be dropped.
Their position was backed up by the Supreme Court last week when chief justice Bagir Manan issued a legal opinion declaring that the case should be closed, citing an August report by Suharto's medical team that deemed his health beyond recovery.
Bureau Report
