BIN assigns senior agents to assist Munir investigation

BIN assigns senior agents to assist Munir investigation

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Eva. C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Syamsir Siregar
announced on Thursday that he has assigned three senior officers
to assist the government-sponsored fact-finding team in finding
the killers of noted human rights advocator Munir.

Syamsir vowed that BIN, whose agents have been linked to last
year's murder of Munir, would help solve the high-profile case.

"We want to solve it," he said after attending a meeting at
Vice President Jusuf Kalla's office, asserting that there was no
evidence to back the allegation against the agency in the murder.

Syamsir said the three senior officers would draw up technical
matters for coordination between BIN and the fact-finding team.

The rights campaigner was found dead on Sept. 7 last year on
board a Garuda Indonesia plane carrying him to Amsterdam, the
Netherlands.

An autopsy conducted by the Dutch authorities found an
excessive amount of arsenic in Munir's body, indicating that he
had been deliberately poisoned during the first leg of his flight
between Jakarta and Singapore.

Syamsir declined to identify the three BIN officials he had
assigned to assist the team, saying it would be discussed further
with the team.

He denied that BIN's decision to assign the three senior
agents was in response to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's
recent order for all relevant institutions to give the team
access to any developments in the investigation.

The move was aimed at ensuring that BIN was open to the
investigation, he said. "There was no presidential order given to
me," Syamsir said.

The fact-finding team had earlier accused BIN of being
reluctant to cooperate in the investigation, after the agency
canceled several scheduled meetings with it.

Team chief Brig. Gen. Marsudi Hanafi confirmed several BIN
officers would help his side in the probe.

Currently the team is designing a proposal for the agreement
between BIN and the team, he added. "We hope the team, including
intelligence officers, will make it easier for us to exchange
information between the team, police investigators and BIN staff
members."

Marsudi said his team would cross check data and facts on the
alleged involvement of BIN agents in the Munir case.

BIN, he added, may not be involved as an institution in the
case, but the involvement of its agents was likely.

The National Police have named as suspects Garuda pilot
Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto as well as Oedi Iriyanto and Yeti
Susmiyarti, both flight attendants, who were on board the flight
Munir took from Jakarta to Amsterdam.

Pollycarpus was aboard the airplane as an aviation security
officer in the first leg to Singapore, while the two flight
attendants served the meals to passengers, including Munir.

However, it was later found that Pollycarpus' assignment
letter was typed and signed more than a week after Munir's death.
Former Garuda president director Indra Setiawan was the one who
gave the assignment to Pollycarpus, while the state-owned
airline's vice president of corporate security, Ramelgia Anwar,
signed the assignment letter instead of Garuda's operational
director as usually is the case.

Marsudi urged the police to also name Ramelgia and Indra as
suspects since they were also linked to the alleged document
forgery, a charge laid against Pollycarpus apart from assisting
in a premeditated murder.

Police said Ramelgia Anwar should have been questioned for a
second time on Thursday, but it was postponed until Friday along
with the questioning of Indra Setiawan.