JAKARTA Indonesian police swooped on former president Suharto's luxury family estate on Tuesday hoping to catch his fugitive youngest son visiting the ex-autocrat's sickbed.
But police, widely ridiculed for failing to nab Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra for more than 10 days, failed again.
The retired general, who has already had three strokes, suffered breathing difficulties and high blood pressure on Monday raising fears of another stroke.
Jakarta police chief detective Harry Montolalu said he thought Tommy, on the run from a graft conviction, might have risked joining his brothers and sisters who gathered around their father at his mansion in central Jakarta's elite Menteng area.
"But after I checked the whole complex, I believe he is not here," he told reporters.
"I myself went in and checked Bapak's room. He was lying sick with an intravenous drip, but Tommy was not there," he said, using the term of respect, Bapak (father), for Suharto.
"I can't talk to Bapak because he was asleep, sick and with oxygen going in his nose." Suharto's secretary, Anton Tabah, told Reuters his condition had stabilized and there were no plans to take him to hospital.
Doctors treated Suharto at home on Monday, but Tabah denied local media reports he was unconscious for most of the day.
"He did not fall unconscious. When he had severe breathing problems, the doctors promptly aided him to his room where they put him on oxygen," he said, adding Suharto was still on oxygen.
Local media reported the 79-year-old Suharto's condition deteriorated after he asked the whereabouts of Tommy. But reports have also previously said Suharto is virtually incoherent and the family keeps all news from him.
Police last week searched the homes of Suharto, Tommy and other family members in the Cendana complex, almost a week after he disappeared to avoid going to jail for 18 months over an $11 million land scam.
(Reuter)