Garuda pilot grilled over poisoning death of Munir

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Five National Police investigators on Tuesday questioned Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto over his alleged role in the murder of rights activist Munir last September.

National police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung said the questioning focused on the pilot's activities during the flight between Jakarta and Singapore, and during the stopover at Singapore's Changi Airport.

Suyitno said the police would like to discover why Pollycarpus gave his business class seat to Munir during the one hour flight, which police believe is a key to cracking the case.

Pollycarpus was aboard the same plane as Munir as an aviation security officer, and was assigned to the flight by Garuda vice president of corporate security rather than its operational director as was usually the case. This discrepancy was uncovered by both the police and the government-sanctioned fact finding team.

Munir, cofounder of the human rights organizations Imparsial and Kontras, died two hours before the Garuda aircraft landed at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam.

An autopsy performed by Dutch authorities showed an excessive amount of arsenic in his body, sparking speculation that he was murdered.

Pollycarpus went into the interrogation room after doctors had given him a series of physical examinations, during which the police also gave him a lie detector test.

The pilot managed to evade last week's scheduled police questioning because of alleged medical complications from a motorcycle accident in February.

Suyitno said Pollycarpus was being questioned as a witness at this stage because the police had not yet found sufficient proof to declare him a suspect.

Pollycarpus has been staying at the National Police Headquarters since Monday for security reasons, at the request of his family, Suyitno said.

Pollycarpus' lawyer Suhardi Somomoeljono confirmed the request, saying his client had received many anonymous threats.

Separately, a member of the government-sanctioned fact finding team, Usman Hamid, said the team had submitted the names of two more suspects to the police. It had handed the police a list of six people allegedly involved in what it called a conspiracy to kill Munir, including Pollycarpus.

Usman, however, refused to identify the two persons.

"We can't publish the names but we will urge the police to follow up on our recommendations since we think so far they haven't heeded our advice enough," Usman said.

Last week police questioned four Garuda stewardesses in relation to the case.

Usman said the team plans to hold a meeting with State Intelligence Agency (BIN) officials to seek clarification about the institution's alleged role in the matter.

"We will seek verification from BIN's director whether the agency was involved in the murder, as we have heard," he said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in a meeting recently that he had ordered all relevant institutions to cooperate with the team in finding those responsible for Munir's death.