Garuda pilot not guilty of activist’s 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.