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JAKARTA - THE family of ailing Indonesian ex-president Suharto will not pay out any money to settle a civil corruption suit against the 86-year-old, one of their lawyers said on Monday.
The government has been pursuing the civil case since a criminal corruption trial against Mr Suharto was finally abandoned in 2006 on the grounds of his ill health.
With the former dictator now in a critical condition in hospital, Attorney General Hendarman Supanji met with Mr Suharto's family on Saturday on the orders of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and offered to settle the case.
The suit is seeking 1.4 billion dollars (S$2 billion) in damages and the return of stolen assets allegedly siphoned from a charitable foundation that Suharto chaired.
But lawyer O. Cornelius Kaligis said there was no way the family would pay any money to secure a settlement.
'If we are asked to negotiate but the demand comes accompanied with a demand to pay some compensation, we will refuse it. We will refuse it until kingdom come, as long as it includes a compensation payment,' Mr Kaligis told reporters.
He said that if the government wanted to settle the case, it could simply revoke the president's order to the attorney general demanding the matter be taken to court, 'and everything will end there.'
Mr Suharto's lawyers had sent a letter to the government urging the president to do this, he said.
Mr Suharto suffered multiple organ failure on Friday and slid into a 'very critical' condition two days later.
Doctors on Monday however said they were surprised by his will to live and he had improved.
The former president, who stepped down a decade ago after 32 years of iron-fisted rule, was accused by graft watchdog Transparency International in 2004 of embezzling up to 35 billion dollars while he was in power. -- AFP
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