Pilot 'not scheduled to fly to S'pore'

JAKARTA: Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto was not scheduled to be on the Sept. 6, 2004 flight bound for Amsterdam via Singapore, according to Eddy Santoso, Garuda's crew scheduling manager.

Speaking as a witness in the trial of Pollycarpus, who is the prime suspect in the murder of top human rights campaigner Munir, Eddy said the pilot initially was scheduled to fly to Beijing on Sept. 5-8, but then canceled the plan and requested off-duty status because he wanted to attend a pilot association meeting on Sept. 7.

"I didn't know why the defendant was later assigned to Singapore," he told the court on Tuesday.

Munir was found dead on board the Sept. 6 flight a day later. A Dutch autopsy revealed that he had been poisoned by arsenic.

According to previous testimonies, Pollycarpus was assigned to the Singapore flight by then president of Garuda Indra Setiawan as a "corporate security officer". Prosecutors have also charged Pollycarpus of forging documents to allow him to fly to Singapore. -- JP