The 86-year-old former dictator suffered multiple organ failure on Friday, a week after he was initially admitted to hospital with heart, kidney and lung problems, and he was hooked to a ventilator to save his life.

On Saturday he appeared to stabilize and even improve slightly, but Sunday there was another deterioration.

“This morning there was an urgent action to clear the respiratory tract because signs of blockage... were found,” Mardjo Soebiandono told a briefing Sunday afternoon.

“The conclusion is that there is a regression in the function of almost all organs and the condition of Haji Muhammad Suharto is very critical.”

Asked about the patient’s chances of survival, he said: “It is 50-50. We may pray that God fulfills (our wishes) and cures H.M. Suharto.”

Family had been gathered twice to be informed “of the worst possibilities,” he said, adding that doctors had asked the family whether he should be resuscitated if it be necessary “and they left it to the doctors to decide.”

Another doctor on the team, Djoko Rahardjo, speaking to reporters as he left the hospital after dusk, said there had been some improvement in Suharto’s condition with stabilized blood pressure, but he did not elaborate.

Suharto was forced to ignominiously step down a decade ago amid violent riots and an economic crisis after 32 years of repressive and often brutal rule in the world’s fourth-most populous nation.

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