SBY urged to push police to continue Munir murder probe
SBY urged to push police to continue Munir murder probe
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A group of human rights activists has asked President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono to order the police to continue the
investigation into the murder of noted human rights defender
Munir in a bid to reveal the masterminds.
The group also asked the President to order the National
Intelligence Agency (BIN) to conduct an internal investigation in
response to rising speculation that former and active senior
officials of the agency were involved in Munir's murder.
"The President rejected our prior proposal to establish a
presidential team to monitor the performance of the police and
BIN during the investigation of the Munir case.
"As a consequence, the President has to show his willingness
to continue the investigation into this case by asking the
National Police chief and the BIN chief to reveal the conspiracy
behind the murder as earlier stated by the court," said Asmara
Nababan, who is also former secretary-general of the National
Commission on Human Rights, at a news conference.
He was referring to a verdict issued by the judicial panel at
the Central Jakarta District Court in the recent trial of Garuda
pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, who was found guilty of
murdering Munir and forging documents to enable him to be on the
Sept. 7, 2004 Garuda flight on which Munir was fatally poisoned
during the Jakarta-Singapore leg of the trip to Amsterdam.
Pollycarpus was sentenced to 14 years in prison. The judicial
panel also ordered law enforcers "to find the mastermind of the
murder".
The judicial panel also said that top Garuda officials at the
time were involved in falsifying travel documents for
Pollycarpus. The court also said Pollycarpus contacted on several
occasions via mobile phone a high-ranking official from BIN, Maj.
Gen. (ret) Muchdi Purwoprandjono, prior to and after the murder
took place.
"But as of today, the police have yet to summon them for
investigation purposes," said another activist, Rachland
Nashiddik, from human rights watchdog Imparsial.
Present during the news conference were Usman Hamid from the
National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence
(Kontras), Hendardi from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human
Rights Association (PBHI) and Iskandar Sonadji from Kontras.
They were on the now-defunct government-sanctioned fact
finding team that concluded that the September murder was a
conspiracy involving top BIN officials.