[Kabar-indonesia] 3 Munir Updates: Amid Skepticism, SBY Orders Stepped-Up Probe [+JP; VOA]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: JP: Pilot 'exonerated' in Munir murder; and
Voice of America (VOA): Indonesian Court Acquits 
Pilot of Murdering Rights Activist 

Indonesia Steps Up Probe Into Activist's Murder By Poison

JAKARTA, Oct. 5 (AP)--Indonesia ordered a stepped-up probe into the poisoning 
death of a prominent rights activist after the man convicted in the killing 
was acquitted, but fellow rights workers Thursday were skeptical the case will 
ever be solved. 

The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed the conviction of an off-duty pilot 
who had been sentenced to 14 years for putting a fatal dose of arsenic in food 
served to Munir Thalib as he was flying to Amsterdam on state-owned airline 
Garuda Indonesia. 

The decision angered many in Indonesia, where the case is seen as a test of 
how much the country has changed since the Suharto dictatorship under which 
activists and government critics were often murdered or tortured, allegedly by 
security forces. 

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the police to "improve and 
heighten their investigation" into Thalib's killing, the president's spokesman told 
reporters after the verdict was announced. 

Asmara Nababan, a leading rights activist and a member of an independent 
fact-finding team established by Yudhoyono last year to probe the case, dismissed 
the spokesman's words. 

"Those kind of things have been said before," Nababan said on el-Shinta 
radio. "It is only rhetoric, a kind of public relations. If there is no action from 
the president, the case will not be solved." 

Nababan said the fact-finding team believed the off-duty pilot, Pollycarpus 
Priyanto, was a key player in the conspiracy to kill Thalib. The team has 
previously revealed links between Priyanto and an agent from Indonesia's 
intelligence agency. 

Munir, 38, rose to prominence toward the end of Suharto's 32-year rule, which 
ended with his overthrow in 1998 amid nationwide riots. The activist went on 
to probe killings by Indonesian troops during East Timor's bloody struggle for 
independence and military-led violence in the separatist provinces of Papua 
and Aceh. 

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The Jakarta Post
Thursday, October 5, 2006

Pilot 'exonerated' in Munir murder 

Tony Hotland and Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A Garuda Indonesia pilot is expected to walk free by March next year after 
the Supreme Court cut his 14-year jail term to only two years, ruling there was 
insufficient evidence he murdered human rights campaigner Munir.

The court quashed Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto's murder conviction but 
sentenced him to two years jail for falsifying his assignment documents. 

First detained in March last year, Pollycarpus is expected to walk free no 
later than March 2007. 

The verdict means the state is yet to hold a single person responsible for 
the infamous murder that implicates top former officials at the National 
Intelligence Agency (BIN). 

Presiding Justice Iskandar Kamil said here Wednesday that a three-member 
panel had voted two to one Tuesday that Pollycarpus had not been proven guilty of 
killing Munir, although he was guilty of falsifying a document. 

The documents were forged so that Pollycarpus, who was off-duty at the time 
of the flight, could get on the Garuda flight Munir was on board. 

"The primary charge of premeditated murder was not proven. That's why the 
previous ruling was quashed. No witnesses saw him plot the murder," Kamil said. 

Munir was found dead on a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on Sept. 7, 
2004, via Singapore. A Dutch autopsy found a massive amount of arsenic in his 
body. 

The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced Pollycarpus to 14 years jail 
last December. That court also noted Pollycarpus had made repeated calls to the 
mobile phone of former BIN deputy head Muchdi P.R. and urged a further 
investigation. Muchdi denied involvement in the murder. Pollycarpus' conviction was 
later upheld by a higher court. 

The pilot claimed he had been tasked to supervise security on the 
Jakarta-Singapore leg of the flight but documents attesting this were later found to have 
been falsified. 

He was the sole defendant in the high-profile murder case despite findings by 
a government-sanctioned team that former senior officers at BIN were 
involved. 

National Police chief Gen. Sutanto renewed his promise to continue the probe 
into the case, saying the killers could be revealed depending on Pollycarpus' 
"cooperation" with investigators. 

Sutanto said a new team had been formed to probe the murder although he was 
evasive when asked what kind of information the police would need to find the 
masterminds of the murder. 

Supreme Court chief Bagir Manan said he was "unaware" of the verdict, and 
could not comment. 

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has publicly promised to Munir's widow, 
Suciwati, the government would find and try all those responsible for the 
murder. 

Responding to the verdict, Suciwati said the acquittal of Pollycarpus was 
deeply hurtful and a slap in the face to all those seeking justice for human 
rights abuses. "I'm disappointed," she told The Jakarta Post. 

She questioned the Yudhoyono administration's commitment to finding the 
killers of her husband. "President Susilo said the Munir case was a test case for 
the nation, but it looks like he was saying it half-heartedly," she said. 

Suciwati said the crime of falsifying documents should have been linked to 
the plot to assassinate Munir. 

Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) chairman Patra M. Zen said the 
verdict would diminish people's faith in the justice system. 

Patra urged the Attorney General's Office to take all legal avenues available 
to pursue the case. 

"The AGO must file a case review against the verdict. No matter what, 
Pollycarpus was involved in killing Munir," he said. 

Artidjo Alkostar, the dissenting judge on the Supreme Court panel, said he 
agreed with the prosecutors' demand for a life sentence for Pollycarpus. 

He argued in his dissenting opinion that Pollycarpus' frequent phone contacts 
with Munir before the incident implied causality. 

-----------------------------------------

Voice of America
October 4, 2006

Indonesian Court Acquits Pilot of Murdering Rights Activist 

By Nancy-Amelia Collins 

photo: Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto is escorted by police officers. AP

Jakarta

The Indonesian Supreme Court has thrown out a guilty verdict against an 
airline pilot in the murder of the country's top human rights activist, Munir Said 
Thalib. At one point, Indonesia's state intelligence agency was also 
implicated in the murder. 

 Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, a pilot with Indonesia's national airline, 
had been convicted of ordering two flight attendants to put arsenic in Munir 
Said Thalib's orange juice in September 2004, while on a Garuda Airlines flight 
bound for Amsterdam.

The state news agency, Antara, said the Supreme Court quashed that verdict 
Wednesday, because the prosecutors had failed to present any witnesses who 
actually saw Pollycarpus give the poison to Munir.

A lawyer for Pollycarpus, Adnan Wirawan, says he is happy the Supreme Court 
has acquitted his client.

"He is released from being accused as the murderer of Mr. Munir, to poison 
Mr. Munir - he is free from that," he said.

Munir, 38 at the time of his death, was a vocal critic of Indonesian 
strongman Suharto, and he continued to fight for democracy and human rights after the 
fall of Suharto in 1998. He also repeatedly accused the military of violating 
human rights, and of involvement in drug smuggling and illegal logging.

A government-sanctioned fact-finding team investigating Munir's murder 
concluded in 2005 that the State Intelligence Agency, or B.I.N., was involved in the 
plot, and said it suspected a connection between B.I.N. and Pollycarpus.

But in the trial court, prosecutors never mentioned the alleged links between 
Pollycarpus and B.I.N. They suggested instead that the pilot acted only with 
the help of the two Garuda crew members, and said Pollycarpus killed Munir 
because he did not like his politics.

The fact-finding team was officially disbanded in June of 2005, and its 
report was never fully released to the public.

At the trial, Pollycarpus claimed he had been assigned by the airline to 
supervise security on the Jakarta-Singapore leg of Munir's flight. He admitted 
giving his business class seat to Munir for the flight on to Amsterdam. 

Pollycarpus produced a document in court to back up his claim that he had 
been on an airline assignment. But the two lower courts found the document to be 
a forgery, and this finding was upheld by the Supreme Court Wednesday.

Despite this, lawyer Adnan insists his client was not guilty of the forgery, 
either.

"Of course I'm happy that the sentence is reduced, but he's still being 
(found) guilty of something that he never did, which is forging a letter," he noted.

Pollycarpus was originally sentenced to 14 years in prison last December, and 
an appellate court upheld the original verdict.

The Supreme Court sentenced him to two years for the forgery. Adnan says his 
client will likely be released within four months, as he has already served 
most of the two-year sentence.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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