At last, Pollycarpus declared suspect in Munir murder

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.