BIN deputy denies Pollycarpus ties

BIN deputy denies Pollycarpus ties

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Former deputy chief of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN),
Muchdi PR, claimed that he did not know Pollycarpus Budihari
Priyanto, the main suspect in the murder of top human rights
activist Munir, but acknowledged there had been several phone
contacts from his cellphone to that of Pollycarpus.

But Muchdi insisted that it was not him that made the phone
calls, arguing that his cellphone was often used by other people.

"I didn't make those communications, because my cellphone is
often used by other people," he told the Central Jakarta District
Court on Thursday as a witness in the trial of Pollycarpus.

Prosecutors said that 27 phone calls had been made from
Muchdi's cellphone number (0811900xxx) to Pollycarpus
(081584304xxx), as evidenced in a print out provided by
telecommunications firm PT Telkom.

According to news portal detik.com, Muchdi said that his
cellphone was sometimes held by his driver or by his aide, and
that it was only in his hands at night. "During the daytime,
anyone can use it, because it's not me who pays the bills, but PT
Barito Pacific Timber," he said, referring to a timber company
owned by tycoon Prajogo Pangestu. He did not explain why Barito
would be paying his cellphone bills, which had been happening
since 1995.

Muchdi and former secretary general of BIN, Nurhadi (now
Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria), were supposed to appear in
court during a hearing on Wednesday, but did not show up. Nurhadi
also failed to turn up at the Thursday hearing.

Muchdi's appearance in court was expected to shed some light
on an independent investigation report that implicated certain
former and active BIN officials in the murder case. The report,
made by the now-defunct independent fact-finding team (TPF)
assigned to help police in the investigation into the murder, was
submitted to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono but has never
been disclosed to the public. It has, however, been leaked to
certain journalists.

The team had urged police to also investigate BIN officials,
who they allege were involved in a conspiracy with Pollycarpus to
murder Munir, who had been a strong critic of human rights abuses
particularly by the military.

The former commander of the Army's Special Forces grabbed
headlines when he and several other former BIN officials -- who
were still active when the murder case took place last year --
refused to appear before the TPF for questioning.

This was despite a protocol agreement that was jointly signed
by the team and current BIN chief Syamsir Siregar, which should
have allowed the team to summon BIN officials and access
important documents.

Munir, the country's top human rights campaigner, died on
board a Sept. 6, 2004 Garuda flight bound for Amsterdam.
According to indictments against Pollycarpus, a senior Garuda
pilot, he joined the same flight as an aviation security officer.
Munir was poisoned during the Singapore-Jakarta leg of the trip.
Pollycarpus along with two other Garuda crew members are accused
of putting arsenic into orange juice served to Munir. Some
believe that Pollycarpus is also a BIN agent.

Meanwhile, Pollycarpus confirmed Muchdi's statement they were
not acquainted with each other. However, he insisted that the
cellphone number mentioned by the prosecutor was not his.