Former President Suharto, Indonesia's strongman ruler for more than three decades, remains in critical condition but has improved slightly overnight, a member of his medical team said today.
Mr Suharto (86), was rushed to hospital last week suffering from anaemia and low blood pressure due to heart, lung and kidney problems, and his health deteriorated yesterday as doctors tried to avert multiple organ failure.
"He is still in critical condition. He is conscious, alert. He asks to pray while lying in bed," Mardjo Soebiandono, the head of the medical team treating the former general, told a news conference. "His heart isn't strong enough to pump blood."
Mr Suharto was forced to resign in 1998 in the face of a tumultuous pro-democracy movement and economic crisis. While his political influence has faded since then, he and his family remain powerful and retain close ties to the military.
Attempts by subsequent governments to prosecute Mr Suharto for graft have failed so far.
The former strongman, who rarely appears in public, has suffered from various ailments in recent years, including intestinal bleeding and strokes.
Mr Suharto rose to power after he led the military in 1965 against what was officially called an attempted communist coup. Whether that was true - and Mr Suharto's role in the events remains controversial - it was followed by an anti-communist purge in which as many as 500,000 people were killed.
Critics say he and his family amassed billions during the decades that followed, but the former president and members of his family deny any wrongdoing.
Mr Suharto was previously charged with graft but escaped prosecution when he was deemed too ill to stand trial.
The sudden deterioration in his health over the weekend prompted some senior politicians and one of Mr Suharto's daughters to call for legal proceedings against him to be dropped. But the attorney-general said his office would press ahead with the civil case.