Prosecutors recommend life for Pollycarpus

Prosecutors recommend life for Pollycarpus

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Prosecutors have recommended a life sentence for Garuda pilot
Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto for the murder of the country's top
human rights campaigner Munir.

The case is being closely watched by human rights groups both
at home and overseas to see whether the government will bring the
powerful masterminds behind the murder to court.

"We ask the panel of judges to declare that the defendant,
Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, has been proven beyond reasonable
doubt to have committed premeditated murder and falsified
documents," prosecutor Domu P. Sihite told the Central Jakarta
District Court on Thursday.

The life sentence demand was greeted by applause from Munir's
widow, and dozens of his supporters inside the courtroom.

The trial will resume on Dec. 12 to hear the defense counsel's
arguments.

Munir, who had been a strong critic of human rights abuses in
the country including those committed by rogue elements in the
military, died aboard a Sept. 7, 2004 Garuda flight from Jakarta
to Amsterdam. A Dutch autopsy found a lethal dose of arsenic in
his body.

Pollycarpus, who joined the same flight as an aviation
security officer, was accused by prosecutors of ordering two
flight attendants (already named as suspects but who have yet to
be put on trial) to put arsenic into a glass of orange juice to
be served to Munir during the flight. The 38-year-old rights
campaigner became violently ill and died two hours before
landing.

"As the plane began to fly from Jakarta to Singapore and the
cabin crew started to prepare the welcome drinks, some witnesses
have said that the defendant was seen walking to the pantry. The
defendant put poison into glasses of orange juice with the help
of the two cabin crew," Domu told the court as he read out the
charges.

Pollycarpus was also accused of falsifying airline documents
to enable him to joint the Sept. 7 flight.

Munir's wife Suciwati had earlier testified before the court
that days before Munir left for the Netherlands to continue his
study, a Garuda pilot named Pollycarpus had repeatedly called her
husband's cellular phone to ensure that the rights activist did
not cancel his plan to fly on that day.

Pollycarpus is the only key suspect so far to be put on trial
for the murder. Usman Hamid, former secretary of the now-defunct
government-sanctioned fact finding team assigned to help the
police in investigating the case, said that the government should
arrest and put behind bars the people behind the murder.

"Munir was killed amid his fight for democratization, law
enforcement, and protection of human rights. The question is why
did he have to die? To stop his struggle? This is the motive, and
the President (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) shouldn't need to be
reluctant to follow up our (the team's) recommendation, unless of
course the President is trying to protect other murderers in this
case," Usman said.

The team had also raised this question when it began to link
the murder with certain former officials of the National
Intelligence Agency (BIN) during the investigation. Pollycarpus
is believed to be a BIN agent, although BIN has denied this.