New evidence has been presented in a judicial review of Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto — who was acquitted last year for murdering renowned human rights activist Munir — that links the murder with the National Intelligence Agency (BIN).
Part of the new evidence presented by prosecutor Poltak Manulang to a Jakarta court on August 16 includes testimony from a junior BIN agent, Raden Mohammad Padma Anwar (also known as Ucok). Ucok claims he and another agent, Sentot, received orders from a senior agent, Manunggal Maladi, to kill Munir before the 2004 election. He said that a number of plots were devised, including asking a paranormal to bewitch Munir, which did not work.
Ucok recalled an occasion when he had seen Priyanto in BIN's parking lot and Sentot had told him that Priyanto was a Garuda official there to meet high-ranking BIN officials. Not long after, Ucok testified that when he heard of Munir's death, Sentot told him it was "none of our business".
Munir died of arsenic poisoning on a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on September 7, 2004. He had angered powerful military and intelligence figures by revealing human rights abuses in West Papua and Aceh, along with military involvement in drug trafficking and illegal logging.
In December 2005, a court sentenced Priyanto to 14 years for the murder, noting that he had not acted alone. Priyanto once claimed to have been recruited by BIN in 2002 (although he now refutes this). The court heard that prior to the murder he made numerous phone calls to the former deputy head of the agency, Muchdi PR, a former elite special forces commander who was sacked following Munir's investigation into the 1998 abductions of student activists.
However last October, a Supreme Court verdict cleared Priyanto of the murder charges, leaving no-one to be held accountable.
Shortly after being elected president in 2004, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised the public — and Munir's widow Suciwati — that he would personally ensure a thorough investigation of the case. He even described the murder as a "test case for the nation" and established an officially sanctioned fact-finding team (TPF).
In its final report submitted to the president in June 2005, the team found evidence that Munir's death was a "well-planned conspiracy" and named a number of Garuda executives and BIN officials who should be investigated. These recommendations were never taken up by police or at Priyanto's trial, and Yudhoyono has refused to make them public — even though the investigation's terms of reference requires this.
Three witnesses — all passengers on Munir's flight — testified that they saw Priyanto drink at a cafe with Munir during a stopover at Changi Airport in Singapore. The prosecutor therefore concluded that Munir was poisoned at Changi Airport and not aboard the plane, as was previously thought.
Manulang also cited a testimony from then Garuda executive director Indra Setiawan, saying he had received a recommendation from BIN deputy head As'ad instructing him to assign Priyanto as an aviation security officer on the fateful flight. Both Setiawan and another senior Garuda official are in custody and are expected to be charged with being accessories.
The prosecutors have requested that the judges reopen the case against Priyanto given the new evidence. They are asking why the Supreme Court — which ruled that Priyanto was guilty of using a falsified document to board Munir's flight but was not guilty of murder — did not insist on finding out why Priyanto needed to use the document, why he offered to swap his business-class seat with Munir, who was in economy, and why he had phoned Munir, whom he did not know, before the flight.
The Supreme Court has a history of releasing people who have high-level political backing, and many believe that the decision to release Priyanto was to silence him. On several occasions, his lawyer has claimed that Priyanto knows more about the murder than he is letting on.
Usman Hamid, the head of Kontras, a human rights group established by Munir, said it was essential that there are further investigations and prosecutions. "This is not an ordinary murder. It's about the need to reform intelligence and it is about the future of democracy and human rights in Indonesia", he said.
Hamid added that nothing short of Indonesia's democracy is at stake. "I cannot imagine how the Indonesian government, Indonesian democracy, can continue if those individuals remain untouchable in the future", he told Agence France Presse. "Law enforcement is just an illusion if we are not able to solve this case. The evidence is there, the witnesses are there. We have no excuse to get out of this situation."