Indonesia to file suit against Suharto over funds misuse
Posted: 25 January 2007 1546 hrs

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JAKARTA : Indonesian state prosecutors plan to file a civil suit against former dictator Suharto later this month over alleged misuse of charitable funds, Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh said Thursday.

Suharto, 85, has so far escaped trial over allegations he amassed billions of dollars in state assets during the three decades he ruled Indonesia with an iron fist, including through foundations he ran.

Saleh said they would file a lawsuit over the alleged mismanagement of one of seven charitable foundations set up and chaired by the former leader.

"It will be (filed) at the end of January but there are still a few details that are not yet completed," Saleh told journalists.

"The first step will be the Supersemar, but that is not the last one, we continue to study the cases and there are still six others (foundations)," he said.

The Supersemar foundation, founded by Suharto in 1974, collects donations from businesspeople and other donors to provide scholarships for students.

Almost 800,000 scholarships have been awarded by the foundation but, as a private foundation, its fund management has never been made public.

Due to ill health, Suharto has never taken the stand for corruption charges levelled against him in 2000.

These accuse him of misusing more than 500 million dollars from charitable foundations -- separate to the billions in state assets he is also alleged by critics to have siphoned off.

Last May, prosecutors dropped a corruption case against Suharto after an appeal court overruled a lower court's order to reopen the proceedings.

Suharto stepped down amid mounting unrest in 1998 and since then has lived at his upscale family residence in the leafy Jakarta suburb of Menteng.

He has been in and out of hospital over various health problems in recent years, including at least three operations and nearly a month of treatment for stomach problems last year. - AFP /dt