Judges trying former Indonesian president Suharto for corruption on Thursday agreed to a request by prosecutors that the trial be postponed for two weeks.
"The session cannot be continued today and will be postponed ... it will be continued in two weeks, to be precise, on Thursday, 14th of September 2000 at 10:00 a.m. Western Indonesian Time (0300 GMT)," Judge Lalu Mariyun said.
Mariyun also said that the five-judge panel was still debating whether the reasons of ill health offered by Suharto's team of doctors were sufficient to satisfy the court.
He said the panel of judges had agreed with the defense lawyers that they bring doctors from the defendant's private medical team to the next trial session, but on condition that their explanation was in plain language.
"This team of doctors should give a detailed explanation in a language that can be understood by the panel of judges as well as the people in general," Mariyun said.
Earlier in the day, the defense lawyers read out a detailed and complex report of a medical examination on Suharto in May.
The panel of judges, Mariyun said, also demanded that the team of doctors from the state Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital here, who had conducted the examination on the former president in May, should also appear at the next session.
But he said the panel would "consider further" the prosecutor's demand for the setting up of an independent team of doctors to give a "second opinion" on Suharto's health conditions.
Suharto, who ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for 32 years, is facing charges of stealing 571 million dollars from the state by funneling money from huge tax-free charity foundations he ran into the businesses of family and friends.
President Abdurrahman Wahid has promised him a pardon, but only on condition that he stand trial first - JAKARTA (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
