Jakarta – Indonesian prosecutors said Wednesday they would seek to reopen the investigation into the killing of a Dutch journalist in East Timor, after receiving new evidence from Dutch authorities.

The announcement is an about-face for the Attorney General's Office, which only last month said it was dropping the murder investigation of Financial Times reporter Sander Thoenes for lack of fresh leads.

Prosecutors met with Dutch authorities Wednesday in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and said they will ask a judge to reopen the case.

"The Dutch police gave us a lot of information," said Barman Zahir, spokesman for the Attorney General's office. "We will go through it and compare it with what we have."

Thoenes was forced off his motorbike and shot dead in East Timor's capital, Dili, soon after he arrived in the city to cover the arrival of an international peacekeeping force and the withdrawal of Indonesian troops in 1999.

Peacekeepers were deployed in East Timor after the Indonesian military went on a rampage following a UN-sponsored vote for independence. Hundreds of people were killed and much of the territory was left in ruins.

Gerrit Thiry, a Dutch detective who has worked on the case for more than two years, said the Indonesian army was behind the murder, identifying 2nd Lt. Camillo dos Santos as the alleged killer. Dos Santos has denied he was involved, and Indonesia has said it lacks the evidence to arrest anyone for the murder.

Thiry told reporters in Jakarta Wednesday that he was happy to see the investigation continue, and urged Indonesia to present its findings to an independent judge.

"I think the family of Sander Thoenes will be more than happy to accept the verdict of a judge," he said. Thiry said he gave prosecutors his findings, including a videotape that shows members of the Indonesian Army's Battalion 745 loading Thoenes' motorbike onto their truck.

Thiry said the videotape helps corroborate the testimony of eyewitnesses who said they saw two soldiers from the battalion standing over Thoenes just before he was killed.

"What the videotape shows is that the Indonesian soldiers were not truthful in their statements to prosecutors and what eyewitnesses said was right," he said.

Thiry said he was not sure how Indonesia would proceed, and that he would be saddened if the killers are not punished. "I would feel sorry," he said. "Not for myself, but for the family, if there is not justice."