Lawyers view Pollycarpus as scapegoat in Munir case

Lawyers view Pollycarpus as scapegoat in Munir case

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Lawyers for an Indonesian pilot charged with poisoning leading
human rights campaigner Munir Thalib Said, have accused
government prosecutors of making up motives behind the murder,
saying prosecutors should arrest the real murderer, instead
making a scapegoat out of their client.

Mohammad Assegaf who led a team of lawyers representing Garuda
Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, the only suspect
on trial in the case, appealed to the panel of judges to drop the
murder charges against their client and asked the prosecutors to
look for the real culprit.

"The prosecutors have fabricated the motive to trap the
defendant in the murder (case) because of their inability to
arrest the true murderer," he told the Central Jakarta District
Court here on Tuesday.

The wife of Pollycarpus and Munir's wife have made an
impassioned plea for the defendant to come out with the truth
about his involvement in the murder and to name other players.

Munir died in the business-class cabin of a Garuda flight from
Jakarta to the Netherlands in September last year. An autopsy
conducted by the Dutch authorities, found excessive amounts of
arsenic in his body.

Pollycarpus who was on the flight but not on duty has been
indicted with conspiring with two Garuda Indonesia flight
attendants to poison Munir, a charge he has denied. The two, Oedi
and Yeti, have not been indicted and remain free.

Prosecutors in their indictment described Pollycarpus as a
staunch nationalist who saw Munir as "a hindrance to the
implementation of the government's programs".

Assegaf said the flimsy accusation showed investigators still
had a lot of work to do and must further expand their
investigation to include other parties that may be involved in
the case.

"It doesn't make sense that a pilot would feel disturbed by
Munir's activities. They should be looking for people behind
Polly, if indeed he is involved," he said.

Neither the prosecutors nor the lawyers have been able to link
Munir's murder to any other parties, including the National
Intelligence Agency (BIN), since the government has not yet
disclosed to the public the results of the fact-finding team's
inquiry into the case.

In its final report, the government-sanctioned team said it
had evidence that Pollycarpus was in frequent telephone contact
with certain BIN officials before and after Munir's death.

Munir had made many powerful enemies in his crusade to promote
human rights and condemn human rights abuses that involved the
security authorities.

Outside the court hearing, Munir's wife Suciwati and
Pollycarpus's wife Herawati called on the defendant to tell the
court the true story about the murder case for the sake of
justice.

Suciwati along with dozens of activists from human rights
groups Kontras and Impartial said she was convinced that
Pollycarpus was not the real murderer of her husband and he
should reveal the mastermind.

Herawati said: "Polly, you're a gentleman. Please, confess if
you did in fact commit murder, or reveal another name for the
sake of justice if you didn't. You should not think of us
(Herawati and their children)."