Pilot 'not aware' of Pollycarpus mission

Pilot 'not aware' of Pollycarpus mission

JAKARTA: A Garuda Indonesia pilot testified at the Central
Jakarta District Court on Tuesday that murder-accused Pollycarpus
Budihari Priyanto was aboard his plane, where a human rights
campaigner Munir was murdered last year.

However, Sabur Muhammad Taufik, who piloted the plane on Sept.
6, 2004, said he knew nothing about Pollycarpus' mission in
Singapore.

Sabur said he saw the defendant at the Garuda flight crew
center at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport moments before
the departure and after his arrival in Singapore.

"We and other crew members were inside the same bus from
Changi Airport to Novotel, but I did not know the room he
(Pollycarpus) was staying in," the pilot said.

Sabur said the aircraft's crew changed before it flew on to
the Netherlands and he returned to Jakarta on Sept. 8.

Munir later died on the flight from Singapore to Schipol
Airport in Netherlands on Sept. 7, 2004. A Dutch autopsy revealed
more than 50 times the level of arsenic needed to kill him in his
body.

Sabur also said he was not informed that during the Jakarta-
Singapore flight, Munir was moved to the business class from
economy. --JP