A team investigating the arsenic poisoning death of a top Indonesian human rights campaigner has found indications of involvement of the state intelligence agency, a rights activist said Thursday.
"Based on everything we have obtained, the agency is believed to have played a major role in a well-planned conspiracy to murder Munir," Asmara Nababan, deputy chairman of the fact-finding team, told AFP.
Rights activist Munir, who like many Indonesians has only one name, died while on a flight to the Netherland in September. An autopsy by Dutch authorities found a lethal dose of arsenic in his blood.
The team was due to submit its final report – which, according ot Nababan, contained names of individuals who should be made to account for Munir's death – to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono later Thursday.
However, he said the team could not clearly state whether the powerful agency had either committed "an institutional crime" or how far its personnel were involved in the outspoken activist's death. "We have the names of people who have played key roles, but we cannot determine how far is their involvement in the murder," Nababan said.
The team, established by presidential decree, is tasked with helping police in their investigation but has no power to charge or arrest suspects.
Police have detained a Garuda Indonesia pilot, Pollycarpus Priyanto, and two cabin crew who served food to the activist, as suspects.
Another member of the team, Munarman, told AFP that the team had evidence that Priyanto was in frequent telephone contact with several members of the intelligence agency "before and after" Munir's death.
But he said it was the job of the police to find out if the communication had anything to do with Munir's death.
"We look for facts and give them to police," said Munarman. "We hope they will follow up our report by bringing these people to justice." Rights activists have long suspected Priyanto of being an intelligence agent. The agency's former chief, retired general Abdullah Hendropriyono, has refused to answer a summons from the fact-finding team, accusing it of arrogance.
Munarman said police should follow up his team's report by "directly questioning" Hendropriyono and several of his deputies – particularly Muchdi Purwopranjono, the former chief of the army special forces unit.
Purwopranjono was one of three high-ranking officers in the elite force who was discharged in 1998 after several of his men were sentenced to jail for abducting 13 activists between 1997 and 1998.
Activists, including Munir, have speculated that the 13 have been killed. Eight people who were held by Muchdi's men have testified of torture.
Munir, 38, was a dynamic activist who began work in the 1990s, providing legal counsel for victims of officially-sanctioned violence and repression during president Suharto's 32-year rule that ended in 1998.