Team to focus on BIN's role in Munir murder

Team to focus on BIN's role in Munir murder

Agencies, Jakarta

A government fact-finding team urged police on Tuesday to widen their probe into the death of the country's most prominent human rights activist by questioning several new suspects, including agents from the National Intelligence Agency (BIN).

Munir Said Thalib died on a Garuda Indonesia flight to Amsterdam on Sept. 7, 2004. A Dutch police report later found that the 38-year-old rights campaigner had been poisoned with nearly 500 milligrams of arsenic, four times the lethal dose.

The autopsy report prompted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to set up a special commission to find the culprits, and establish whether members of the Indonesian Military (TNI), BIN or the state bureaucracy were involved. A legislative panel also has convened hearings about the case.

Hendardi, a member of the government fact-finding team, said police, who last week arrested a Garuda pilot on suspicion of involvement in the conspiracy to murder Munir, have alleged that he "facilitated" the poisoning.

The pilot, identified as Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, reportedly contacted Munir ahead of the flight and arranged for him to get a business-class seat. National media reports have repeatedly suggested that the pilot is linked to BIN.

Munir was a vocal critic of the military, accusing the institution of human rights violations in the troubled provinces of Papua and Aceh and of running a criminal network involved in illegal logging and drug trafficking.

He also provided legal counsel for victims of officially sanctioned violence during former president Soeharto's 32-year rule that ended in 1998.

Following his death, Munir's widow received anonymous threats demanding that she not implicate the military in her husband's death.

Although BIN is a civilian agency, many of its agents and officials are either active or retired military officers. Garuda is a state-owned airline and many of its staff members formerly served in the armed forces.

"We have recommended that police question six persons, including four from Garuda and two from the intelligence agency," said Hendardi. "It is up to the police to decide whether they should be named suspects."

"Also, we are now trying to meet with BIN officials to determine whether they have knowledge about this conspiracy," he said.

Police Sr. Comr. Anton Charlian also said Garuda's outgoing director, Indra Setiawan, would be interrogated in connection with the case.

Also on Tuesday, a top police investigator told reporters that detectives were questioning a Garuda secretary, who is believed to have forged a letter instructing Pollycarpus to fly to Singapore as an off-duty pilot on the first leg of Garuda's Sept. 7 flight to Amsterdam.

Earlier, the fact-finding team found "evidence that showed Garuda officials conspired to cover up the wrongdoings" in the case.

Meanwhile, Pollycarpus' lawyers said their client may face the death penalty if convicted.

Lawyer Suhadi Sumomoelyono said police were considering whether to charge the pilot with premeditated murder, which carries a maximum penalty of death and a minimum of 20 years in prison.

"Police have informed my client of the use of those articles while his charge sheet is being prepared. They are still trying to determine his role in the case through interrogations," Suhadi said.

He voiced concerns last week that his client had been set up to protect others involved in a wider conspiracy.