Team summons ex-BIN Hendro for second time
Team summons ex-BIN Hendro for second time
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government-sanctioned fact-finding team assigned to help the
police investigate the death of top rights campaigner Munir
expects to question former chief of the National Intelligence
Agency (BIN) A.M. Hendropriyono on Thursday.
Team member Usman Hamid said a letter had been sent on Tuesday
to the BIN office requesting that Hendropriyono submit to
questioning to establish whether the agency was in any way
connected to Munir's death.
"We have followed all conditions set by Hendropriyono's side,"
Usman said.
The team previously summoned the retired four-star Army
general but he did not show up as instructed on Monday, citing
unspecified business out of town. His lawyer said that
Hendropriyono also objected to the way the team had summoned him,
which he called "non-procedural and unprofessional".
According to Usman, one of Hendropriyono's requirements was
that the summons must be sent through the BIN office.
The team has also requested that former deputy BIN chief Maj.
Gen. Muchdi PR show up for questioning on Wednesday.
It remains unclear, however, whether Hendropriyono will turn
up on Thursday.
Hendropriyono's lawyer, Maj. Gen. (ret) Sjamsu Djalal, said he
would check whether a copy of the summons was sent to National
Police Headquarters to inform the police of the questioning.
"In principal we will assist the team as long as the members
respect other people's rights. While collecting information,
wouldn't it be more appropriate for the team to advise my client
and go to my client's place, instead of summoning my client? The
team is not the executor, anyway. It exists just to assist the
police, nothing more, nothing less," Sjamsu told The Jakarta Post
by phone.
"As of today, my client is dealing with other business out of
Jakarta, anyway," he added.
Hendropriyono, via his lawyer, previously protested the use of
the terms "summons" and "questioning" as it had the tendency to
create the impression that he was a suspect in the case.
The team is under pressure to speed up the investigation as
its mandate expires in two weeks.
Munir died last September on a Garuda flight from Jakarta to
Amsterdam. According to Dutch authorities, which performed an
autopsy, there was an excessive amount of arsenic in Munir's
system, suggesting that he was poisoned during the flight. The
police have named three Garuda personnel suspects, including off-
duty pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, who gave his business
class seat to Munir on the flight from Jakarta to Singapore,
during which it is believed Munir was poisoned. There are rumors
that Pollycarpus was a BIN agent at the time.
Meanwhile, the police on Tuesday questioned former Garuda
president Indra Setiawan to confirm whether he had issued a
letter assigning Pollycarpus to fly on the same flight as Munir.