Later accusations center on his time as one of Indonesia’s most powerful military men under Mr. Suharto. Human rights groups say Mr. Prabowo, then a three-star general, was responsible for the abduction and torture of 23 pro-democracy activists in 1997 and 1998, and for orchestrating riots in May 1998 — just days before Mr. Suharto resigned as president — that resulted in more than 1,000 deaths and the rapes of at least 168 women.

A government-appointed fact-finding team established by Mr. Suharto’s successor reported that Mr. Prabowo had met in his office with military, government and political figures during the riots. That stoked speculation that they had plotted to use the crisis as a way for Mr. Prabowo to take over the crumbling government in a coup. Mr. Prabowo denies any such plot and, in a recent interview, said he could have “taken over if I wanted to.”

A member of the fact-finding team, Marzuki Darusman, said, “To be fair, it’s all circumstantial, and it’s still unresolved.”

In 2006, the National Commission on Human Rights released a report saying 11 people, including Mr. Prabowo, should be prosecuted in the activists’ abductions. The attorney general’s office, which has shied away from most investigations of Suharto-era abuses, declined that request.

The abductions case did end Mr. Prabowo’s military career. He was discharged in August 1998 for “exceeding orders” by arresting the activists, some of whom, according to Mr. Prabowo, had bomb-making equipment. While he accepted responsibility as a senior officer for the torture of nine of the activists, he has said he did not order it and has denied any knowledge about the disappearances of the other 14.

“The main thing about Prabowo is, he’s never been investigated, let alone prosecuted, for the long list of things he’s been linked to,” said Matthew Easton, a former program director for Human Rights First, an organization based in the United States. “His actual command responsibility needs to be investigated.”

Mr. Prabowo argues that he has been made a scapegoat for the abuses committed by the military during Mr. Suharto’s 32 years in power.