At last, Pollycarpus declared suspect in Munir murder

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

After five consecutive days of questioning, National Police on Friday finally declared Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto a suspect in last year's murder of prominent human rights activist Munir.

An arrest warrant for Pollycarpus was signed by transnational security director Brig. Gen. Pranowo, who is in charge of the investigation, said a high-ranking police officer who requested anonymity.

"Based on our investigation, Pollycarpus is involved in the death of Munir, but his exact role in the case cannot yet be determined by our investigators," National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar told reporters earlier in the day.

However, he did not confirm if the suspect would also be officially detained on Friday night.

Da'i said Pollycarpus had given confusing statements to police investigators when quizzed about his activities on a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Singapore, on which Munir was also a passenger.

"This indicates that he is trying to hide something, and a lot of information that he has given us is not in line with other information in our possession," he said.

Pollycarpus was taken to National Police headquarters on Monday for intensive interrogations. Since then, he has remained in police custody, which according to his lawyers was at his own request due to numerous death threats against the pilot.

The suspect was on the same Garuda flight as the human rights campaigner, ostensibly as an aviation security officer.

He was reportedly assigned to the flight by Garuda vice president for corporate security affairs, rather than the operational director as was usually the case.

Pollycarpus is widely believed to be an employee of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN).

Munir, a cofounder of human rights watchdogs Kontras and Imparsial, died two hours before the plane landed at Schipol Airport in the Netherlands on Sept. 7, 2004.

An autopsy performed by Dutch authorities found excessive amounts of arsenic in his body, apparently administered while he was aboard the aircraft.

The autopsy found that Munir might have been poisoned during the one-hour flight between Jakarta and Singapore, when Pollycarpus gave up his business class seat to Munir.

Secretary to the chief pilot Rohainil Aini was also questioned by police on Thursday. She was among six persons that the government-sanctioned fact-finding team recommended be investigated in relation to the murder.

The four others were former Garuda president director Indra Setiawan, vice president for corporate security Ramelgia Anwar, Pollycarpus himself, and two unnamed persons rumored to be BIN employees.

Da'i said police investigators were not yet ready to summons Indra Setiawan for questioning.

The police chief refused to answer when asked when investigators would interrogate the BIN officers allegedly involved in the case.

Usman Hamid of the fact-finding team has said the team planned to hold a meeting with BIN officials next Tuesday to seek clarification of the agency's apparent role in the murder.