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.