Jakarta – Politicians and activists are blasting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration for "not being serious" about resolving the 2004 poisoning death of prominent human rights campaigner Munir.

They said the administration's laxity was evident in the Supreme Court's surprise decision this week to quash the murder conviction of sole suspect Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto.

In the verdict Tuesday, the court cut the suspect's 14-year jail term to two years for falsifying his assignment documents in order to fly with Munir and later exchange seats with him.

Critics said the problem might also be with the Supreme Court. The verdict to exonerate Pollycarpus was split, and sharply contrasted with those issued by lower courts which found Pollycarpus guilty of involvement in the murder.

The Supreme Court argued there was insufficient evidence to convict the Garuda Indonesia pilot in the high-profile murder case.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Agung Laksono, said the National Police had not done a thorough job of collecting evidence against Pollycarpus. "The police must stop covering up the case and scrutinize all people believed to be implicated in the murder," he said.

Noted human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said the police failed to follow up on missing links between Pollycarpus and former senior officers of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN).

Pollycarpus has been accused of being a BIN agent. An independent investigation found he had communicated several times with the agency's former deputy chief, Muchdi P.R., before and after the murder.

"The police also said they found it difficult to investigate because the crime scene was abroad. But it happened inside a Garuda plane, so there shouldn't have been a problem at all," Todung said.

Munir was found dead on board a Garuda plane on Sept. 7, 2004, en route from Jakarta to Amsterdam. A Dutch autopsy found an excessive level of arsenic in his body.

Johnson Panjaitan, executive director of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, claimed the Supreme Court's verdict was a result of a deliberate government policy to avoid resolving the Munir case.

President Yudhoyono sanctioned a fact-finding team to find out who ordered the murder, but the team said they had difficulty getting access to information from the military and BIN.

Yudhoyono has publicly stated his commitment to seeing the case solved. But with the exoneration of Pollycarpus, no one has been held responsible for the murder.

The deputy chief of the fact-finding team, Asmara Nababan, questioned Yudhoyono's resolve, pointing out that the President has not released the team's results to the public.

"What he has to do to prove his commitment to resolving the matter is not issue rhetoric, but meet what is stipulated in his own presidential decree on the forming of the fact-finding team," he told AFP.

Police vowed to revitalize their investigation into Munir's case, while a presidential spokesman said Yudhoyono had ordered police to step up the probe. But activists were skeptical, saying such statements were only lip service.

Munir's widow Suciwati told a press conference that she would like to meet Yudhoyono again to show him what the police might be missing in their investigation.

"The acquittal of Pollycarpus from the murder charge is proof that the government is half-hearted. Had it given full support, I believe the murderer, the executioner and the mastermind, would have been punished by now," she said.

Suciwati also said she was preparing to bring the case, which has drawn international attention, to the International Court of Justice.