The former president of Indonesia, Gen Suharto, has still not been charged with any crime since he stepped down last May, but that day may be closer following his four-hour grilling by investigators in Jakarta yesterday.
The 77-year-old retired general, wearing a brown batik shirt and a black Muslim cap, told reporters after his first formal interrogation: "I have given all the information they wanted."
This is unlikely to be the end of the matter, however, and the ruler of Indonesia for 32 years now faces house arrest pending further interrogations. Gen Suharto looked relaxed and confident in his first public appearance in seven months, but the noose has been tightening around him.
It is being steadily pulled more taut by radical students who demonstrate almost every day near Gen Suharto's bungalow on Jakarta's exclusive Jalan Cendana, calling for his arrest on corruption charges.
The suspected use of paid demonstrators by pro-Suharto loyalists to create disturbances in recent weeks has worked against the former leader, diplomats in Jakarta say. If they were intended to cow the students and warn off President B.J. Habibie from digging too deeply into Suharto government practices, with the prospect of worse havoc to come, they have had the opposite effect.
Their failure may have emboldened Mr Habibie to pursue the investigation of Gen Suharto more vigorously, though critics say the government is putting on a show to placate students.
Already, evidence of high crimes and misdemeanours is accumulating against Gen Suharto, whose family fortune is estimated in the billions of dollars. Some of the 41 questions put to him yesterday by officials from the office of the Attorney-General, Gen Andi Muhammad Ghalib, related to seven charities he ran, a corrupt national car project and his bank accounts and lands.
The Attorney-General disclosed on Tuesday to a parliamentary committee that the charitable foundations controlled by Mr Suharto paid out more funds to his family and cronies than to worthwhile causes.
In a revealing glimpse into the way the former ruler used his powers of patronage, Gen Ghalib told the committee that the funds were mostly dispensed through "presidential decrees and ministerial decrees". The assets of the foundations, worth $530 million (£3.65 million), were handed over to the government by Gen Suharto last month.
"From a judicial perspective, the activities were not illegal because we have no laws regulating foundations, but from the aspect of business ethics and the principles of foundations, of course, it was unacceptable," Gen Ghalib said.
The fact that Gen Suharto continued to control such a vast reservoir of wealth six months after handing power to his protege, Mr Habibie, confirmed suspicions that Gen Suharto out of office continued to wield considerable influence.
The Attorney-General also told parliament members that a "graft-infested" national car project, which Mr Suharto had assigned to his son, Mr Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, was designed solely to profit the Suharto family.
The project, a monopoly which cost the nation $1.55 billion (£1.05 billion) in losses, was dropped as one of the conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $40 billion rescue package for Indonesia a year ago. With its exclusive tax and tariff concessions, it had also been opposed by members of the World Trade Organisation on the grounds of unfair competition.
The former president had allowed his son to import tax-free automobiles from South Korea in return for developing a national car with significant local content. Public opinion was inflamed, and during the anti-Suharto turmoil in May rioters burned car showrooms linked with the company, Timor Putra Nasional.
Mr Tommy Suharto is now barred from leaving Indonesia because of another investigation into a corrupt land deal which also caused the state financial loss. The noose is also tightening for Suharto cronies.
The former Industry minister, Mr Tunky Ariwibowo, was questioned by the Attorney-General about the car project on Tuesday. The former trade minister, Mr Muhammad "Bob" Hasan, a golfing buddy of Gen Suharto, was also interrogated about a national afforestation fund which received tens of millions of dollars of public money without public accountability.
Environmental groups allege that massive amounts were transferred to Mr Hasan, who has large timber concerns, and other businessmen engaged in clearing virgin rain forest to create profitable palm-oil plantations. With the students setting the pace on the streets, Mr Ghalib rejected accusations by members of parliament that he was soft-pedalling on the Suharto investigation.
He announced that his team had found another private bank account belonging to Gen Suharto, whose known bank assets are now put at 24.8 billion rupiah (£1.8 million). His real wealth is estimated to be between $4 billion and $20 billion, analysts now say, with the value decreasing as the state seizes back lucrative concessions.
Mr Suharto said: "I got the money [legally] from my salaries plus other allowances during my 32 years in office, travel allowances when I went out of Jakarta or abroad and from my two houses I rent out."
Investigators also found about 280 hectares of land under Mr Suharto's name in Jakarta, Yogya karta in central Java and East Kalimantan. Mr Suharto has denied owning vast tracts of land, saying it belonged to the foundations he chaired, but the forestry ministry has claimed that the Suharto family and associates own forests in Indonesia almost the size of the island of Java.
In another move against the ancien regime, a finance ministry official, Mr Martiono Hadianto, has been appointed president of the state oil company, Pertamina, which had been a source of funds for Mr Suharto and his associates, with the task of ending corrupt practices.
A state coal-mining company has also ended lucrative contracts with Gen Suharto's eldest daughter, Ms Siti Hardianti Rukmana, who owns a major toll road in Jakarta.