Team looks at possible suspect in Munir case

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Six months after human rights campaigner Munir was murdered, a fact-finding team assigned to help the police investigate the case may have a suspect.

The head of the team, Brig. Gen. Marsudi Hanafi, said on Tuesday the team was looking at an employee of Garuda airline.

"I do not want to mention the name, but this person could be named a suspect in the case," he said when asked whether he was referring to Pollycarpus, a Garuda pilot who was on the same flight as Munir on Sept. 7, 2004, from Jakarta to the Netherlands, via Singapore.

Munir, the founder of the human rights organizations Impartial and Kontras, is believed to have been poisoned by arsenic during the flight from Jakarta to Singapore. He died two hours before the airplane landed in the Netherlands. Pollycarpus, who was on the flight to Singapore as a passenger, reportedly spoke with Munir during the flight and offered to have him moved from economy class to business class.

According to Garuda president director Indra Setiawan, Pollycarpus was flying to Singapore that day to assist a Garuda unit on the island state.

Indra said he signed the assignment letter for Pollycarpus personally, that the letter was issued before Pollycarpus left for Singapore and that it was common practice for Garuda employees to be assigned to other units.

However, the fact-finding team found that the letter was dated on Sept. 17, more than a week after Munir's death, and that it was typed and signed on a Saturday when administration offices are normally closed.

"That letter was signed after Munir had died, which indicates that it was only signed after the media had reported about the suspicious death of Munir," Marsudi said.

A source inside National Police Headquarters said the letter was signed by Garuda's vice president of corporate security, Ramalgia Anwar, not the operational director, who is the supervisor for all Garuda pilots.

The source also said that during a two-hour meeting between the fact-finding team and Garuda officials on Monday, the operational director, Rudy A. Hardono, said he was not aware of any assignment for Pollycarpus.

In fact, after Munir's murder Rudy grounded Pollycarpus for seven days for leaving his unit without permission.

Marsudi said he would submit the name of the suspect to police investigators so they could expand the investigation.

Police investigators, led by Sr. Comr. Oktavianus Far-far, previously questioned Pollycarpus along with other Garuda crew members.

Separately, the director of transnational crime at National Police Headquarters, Brig. Gen. Pranowo, said a preliminary reconstruction of the murder had to be canceled again because Garuda was "not yet ready".