Rights campaigners named libel suspects

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Rights activists Usman Hamid and Rachland Nashidik have been named suspects arising out of a defamation complaint filed with the police by former National Intelligence Agency (BIN) director A.M. Hendropriyono.

The two were members of the now defunct government-sanctioned fact-finding team that assisted the police in investigating the murder of rights campaigner Munir.

Usman and Rachland said they had been summoned by the Jakarta Police for questioning at Jakarta Police Headquarters on Monday.

In his complaint, Hendropriyono said the two had spread damaging rumors about him and had defamed him during the course of the team's work.

Police also questioned as witnesses a number of chief editors and reporters whose papers published the activists' statement about Hendropriyono.

Usman said the police should be investigating whether BIN was involved in Munir's murder instead of questioning him and Rachland over a defamation complaint. The fact-finding team said in its final report that the murder of Munir was a conspiracy that could have involved officials from BIN.

Munir was found dead aboard a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam last September. An autopsy conducted in the Netherlands revealed excessive amounts of arsenic in his body.

But prosecutors have ignored the fact-finding team's recommendation. In their indictment of one of the suspects, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, the prosecutors said Munir's murder was plotted by the defendant and two fellow Garuda employees. Pollycarpus, the prosecutors said, desired Munir dead as he considered him a thorn in the side of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia.

Police have set up a new investigative team led by Brig. Gen. Marsudi Hanafi, who also headed the old team. The new team recently arrested a Garuda passenger who was on Munir's flight for immigration violations, and is investigating whether their is any connection between him and Munir's murder.