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.