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.