Garuda pilot grilled over poisoning death of Munir

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.