An Indonesian court has appointed three judges to try an appeal by prosecutors over the dismissal of a multi-million dollar corruption case against former dictator Suharto, a spokesman said Tuesday.
"The High Court has appointed the judges to study the appeal," Jakarta High Court spokesman Maruarar Siahaan told AFP.
Siahaan said a decision on the appeal was expected in a month.
The three judges named were I Gde Soedharta, the head of the Jakarta High Court, Ismun Abdul Rohim and Ignatius Sugianto.
The appeal was submitted earlier this month by the chief prosecutor in the Suharto case, Muchtar Arifin.
The South Jakarta District Court last month dismissed the 571 million dollar corruption case against the ageing Suharto after doctors said he was mentally and physically unfit to stand trial.
Suharto failed to appear at all three sessions of the trial.
But the chief judge trying the lower court case, Lalu Mariyun, has said that prosecutors could bring the same charges against the former autocrat at any time.
Mariyun said he had dismissed the case because prosecutors had failed to present the defendant in court.
Suharto, 79, a former army-general, ruled Indonesia for 32 years before stepping down in May 1998 amid mass protests and a crippling economic crisis.
Prosecutors alleged that Suharto defrauded the state of 571 million dollars by transferring funds from seven tax-free charity foundations he chaired to the businesses of his family and friends.
The US magazine Time reported in May 1999 that Suharto and his six children were sitting on a fortune of 15 billion dollars and that nine billion dollars of the total was transferred from Switzerland to Austria just before he stepped down.
Suharto sued Time for defamation but the case was thrown out by a Jakarta court in June. He has lodged an appeal – JAKARTA (AFP)
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