Pollycarpus changes his tune on Munir case

Pollycarpus changes his tune on Munir case

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, currently on trial for the
murder of human rights activist Munir, on Friday gave a different
account from his earlier testimony as cited in the indictment.

However, judges and prosecutors did little to question why
defendant had changed his story.

Munir was found dead on board a Garuda Indonesia flight from
Jakarta to the Netherlands on Sept. 7, 2004. A Dutch autopsy
found an excessive amount of arsenic in his body.

The indictment said Pollycarpus recognized Munir as "someone
who caused problems in the implementation of his own programs to
support the Unitary State of Indonesia". An earlier team
investigating the case alleged Pollycarpus was a State
Intelligence Agency (BIN) agent.

The case file also mentioned that the defendant had monitored
Munir's activities since 1999, and had admitted making phone
calls several times to the rights campaigner to confirm whether
he would fly from Jakarta to the Netherlands via Singapore aboard
a Garuda Indonesia flight on Sept. 6 last year, to continue his
studies there.

But at Friday's hearing, Pollycarpus denied that he made phone
calls to Munir's cellular phone. He did admit to exchanging his
seat with Munir only to be courteous to "a well-known passenger".

"I had never known him (Munir). I had never met him,"
Pollycarpus told the court.

Presiding judge Cicut Sutiarso tried to confirm Pollycarpus'
statement with the indictment by asking: "But according to the
indictment, you met him (Munir) for the first time at a rally
held in the Bundaran Hotel Indonesia traffic circle?"

"Yes, I saw him for the first time in that rally," Pollycarpus
replied softly.

"Did you make several phone calls to his (Munir's) cellular
phone before his departure to the Netherlands?" Cicut again
asked.

"No ... I never made any calls to his cellular phone,"
Pollycarpus said.

Pollycarpus said he only realized he and Munir were onboard
the same plane when the they were in the boarding room at
Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, waiting for the
flight to Changi Airport in Singapore.

"Can you explain to the court as to why you offered your seat
in business class to Munir?" prosecutor Domu P. Sihite said.

"I didn't intend to offer my business-class seat to him
(Munir), who held an economic ticket. I just tried to be nice to
a public figure when I offered him my seat. But, somehow, Munir
deemed my suggestion serious, and later moved to business class.
I couldn't stop him," Pollycarpus said.

As a pilot, Pollycarpus admitted he was not authorized to
offer his or any other seat to any passenger.

Pollycarpus insisted that his being on the same flight as
Munir was coincidental. The defendant said he had been assigned
by top Garuda officials to help repair a Garuda plane that had
engine problems in Singapore.

The panel of judges adjourned until Nov. 28 to hear the
prosecutors' sentencing demand for Pollycarpus.

A government-sanctioned fact-finding team has linked former
officers of BIN to the murder case of Munir.

However, the ongoing trial is largely ignoring those findings,
with the indictment not specifying the alleged involvement of
other alleged BIN officers.