Ex-BIN official questioned over Munir poisoning<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
After months of stonewalling, the former secretary of the
\nNational Intelligence Agency (BIN), Nurhadi Djazuli, agreed on
\nMonday to meet the government-sanctioned fact finding team
\ninvestigating the murder of human rights campaigner Munir Said
\nThalib.<\/p>\n
However, in an apparent setback for the team, the details of
\nthe questioning site and the substance of the questions look set
\nto remain a secret.<\/p>\n
Usman Hamid, a member of the fact-finding team, told The
\nJakarta Post by telephone that the meeting between the team and
\nNurhadi took place for two hours in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
\"The team has agreed not to expose the meeting location and
\nits substance to the press for practical reasons during the next
\nmeetings.<\/p>\n
\"All team members threw questions to Nurhadi in line with his
\ntasks and the official mechanisms in the intelligence
\ninstitution. This first session was not directly linked with the
\nMunir case,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of media representatives mobbed the Komnas Perempuan
\nbuilding in Menteng, Central Jakarta on Monday after rumors the
\nquestioning would be held there, however, Nurhadi and none of the
\nteam members were present.<\/p>\n
Any private meeting in the other talked-about location; the
\nmedia blacked-out BIN Headquarters in Pasar Minggu, South
\nJakarta; would have represented a victory for BIN officials who
\nhad pushed for any interrogation to take place there.<\/p>\n
Nurhadi earlier resisted the fact-finding team's summons three
\nconsecutive times because he said the team had no authority to
\nquestion him.<\/p>\n
Nurhadi, who was recently appointed as the Indonesian
\nAmbassador to Nigeria, was the main secretary of BIN when Munir
\ndied aboard a Garuda flight from Jakarta to the Netherlands on
\nSept. 7, last year.<\/p>\n
Dutch authorities found excessive amounts of arsenic in his
\nbody. Some time later, police named pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari
\nPriyanto, stewardess Yeti Susmiyarti and flight attendant Oedi
\nIrianto as the main suspects for Munir's murder by arsenic
\npoisoning.<\/p>\n
Pollycarpus was a Garuda security official who offered Munir a
\nseat in business class, moving him from economy class, during the
\nflight from Jakarta to Singapore. There is evidence suggesting
\nGaruda management attempted to manufacture Pollycarpus' reason
\nfor being on that flight and other information suggesting he had
\nworked as a BIN agent.<\/p>\n
Usman, who is also coordinator of the National Commission for
\nMissing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said his team
\nplanned to hold a second session with Nurhadi in the same
\nlocation next week.<\/p>\n
\"The questions in the next session will be directed to examine
\nany involvement of BIN in the fatal poisoning of Munir,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Separately, Munir's wife, Suciwati, went on Monday to the
\nNational Police Headquarters to submit a report on terror threats
\nmade against her family, Usman and herself.<\/p>\n
Suciwati, accompanied by her lawyer, Iskandar Sonhadji, said
\nthat she had recently received a unidentified handwritten letter,
\nwhich threatened to abduct her, her children and Usman if they
\ncontinued opposing \"NKRI\", the acronym for the unitary state of
\nIndonesia, and supporting the investigation into her husband's
\nmurder.<\/p>\n
The letter stamped on April 27 was sent from Ende, Flores, in
\nEast Nusa Tenggara.<\/p>\n
The unnamed senders also said that they had readied Rp 250
\nmillion (US$26,315) to hire people to abduct and assault Suciwati
\nand her family.<\/p>\n
This is the second threat addressed to Munir's wife after she
\nreceived a brown box filled with a severed chicken head, legs and
\nintestines with a typed message saying \"Do not connect the TNI to
\nMunir's death. Want to end up like this?\"<\/p>\n
Suciwati said that she received the letter on May 4 and later
\ndecided to report it to the police. She was not alarmed by the
\nletter, which had only hardened her resolve, she said.<\/p>\n
\"Since the threat is only in the form of a letter, Suciwati
\ndid not ask for police protection. She will ignore the threat and
\nwould encourage police investigators to work harder on this
\ncase,\" Iskandar said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ex-bin-official-questioned-over-munir-poisoning-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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