Probe into death of Munir suffers new setback

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The probe into the death of a noted human rights campaigner has suffered another setback, with top Garuda Indonesia officials denying any role in the case and giving conflicting statements regarding pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto's assignment letter.

Pollycarpus was the first person to be declared a suspect by police in the Sept. 7, 2004 murder of Munir. Pollycarpus was aboard a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam, ostensibly as an aviation security officer, when Munir was poisoned by arsenic.

The suspect has claimed that he was assigned by Garuda's vice president of corporate security Ramelgia Anwar to assist the company's unit in Singapore. Before the flight, Pollycarpus had called Munir to make sure the latter left Jakarta that day. During the flight he offered Munir his business class seat.

Police have charged Pollycarpus with "facilitating" the murder and with document forgery. The assignment letter from Ramelgia was signed and typed on Sept. 17, more than a week after the incident.

Ramelgia denied on Friday that he had issued an assignment letter for Pollycarpus to fly to Singapore on Sept. 6 last year. "I never issued such an assignment letter to Pollycarpus," he said after being questioned by police investigators.

Also being interrogated over the case were former Garuda president director Indra Setiawan, secretary to the chief pilot Rohainil Aini, chief pilot Carmel Sembiring and flight schedule supervisor Hermawan.

The six-hour questioning was aimed at verifying statements that Garuda executives have made regarding the case.

Garuda's lawyer Wirawan Adnan said Indra Setiawan had issued a letter on Aug. 11 asking Pollycarpus to assist Ramelgia's corporate security department.

Later, Ramelgia assigned Pollycarpus to check a Garuda aircraft that was damaged in Singapore, but did not specify the date when the suspect had to fly there. Ramelgia then went to Makassar, South Sulawesi, from Sept. 2 to 16.

On Sept. 6, Pollycarpus called up Rohainil Aini, saying that he would leave for Singapore that day. Later, Rohainil prepared a travel permit for him and contacted Hermawan to adjust the schedule.

However, Garuda's operational director Rudy A. Hardono found that Pollycarpus had left without permission and grounded him for two weeks.

In order for Pollycarpus to reimburse his travel costs, Ramelgia issued an inter-office memo to Carmel on Sept. 17, but later changed the date to Sept. 4 since the letter should have been made before his departure to Singapore.

"I only wrote an inter-office memo to Captain Carmel, but not an assignment letter. The memo was made to back up his travel permit. That's all," Ramelgia said.

"It was Pollycarpus himself who wanted to go to Singapore on that day (Sept. 6), because I was in Unjungpandang (Makassar) at that time. So he lied to Rohainil about his assignment," Ramelgia added before his lawyer stopped him from talking further.

A source within National Police headquarters said Rohainil told investigators that she wanted to call Ramelgia to make sure that Pollycarpus had really been assigned by him, because Pollycarpus had failed to show his assignment letter.

But Pollycarpus told her not to do so and promised her that Ramelgia would call her eventually, the source added.

Ramelgia, Rohainil and Pollycarpus are scheduled to undergo a cross-examination session next week to verify their conflicting statements to the police.

Aside from Pollycarpus, Garuda employees Oedi Irianto and Yeti Susmiyarti are also suspects in Munir's murder. The two served meals to business class passengers on the flight, including to the poisoned human rights activist.

An autopsy conducted by Dutch authorities found an excessive amount of arsenic in Munir's body, but it remains unclear whether the poison was added to Munir's meal during the first leg of the flight from Jakarta to Singapore.