We owe Munir the activist, who died on September 7, 2004. Yet after almost three years, it is still not clear who killed him.

There are now new findings in the case and we may have something to hope for. The Attorney General has asked for a review into the case of Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, the Garuda pilot who was once accused of poisoning Munir. Pollycarpus was later acquitted of all charges by the Supreme Court.

Read out in court last week, the PK (case review) calling for a re-examination was intended to explain two issues. First, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) wants to convince the Supreme Court that it was Pollycarpus who killed Munir. This is based on the testimony of Raymond J.J. Latuihamallo alias Ongen, a passenger on Garuda flight GA 974 who flew from Jakarta to Holland on that fateful night. While transiting at Singapore's Changi Airport, Ongen saw Pollycarpus at the Coffee Bean cafe carrying two glasses of drinks: one for himself and the other for Munir. After Munir died, a forensic laboratory in the United States confirmed that he had ingested the poison while he was at Changi. It is this glass that the AGO believes led to Munir's death.

Second, the AGO wants to say that BIN (State Intelligence Agency) as an institution, was involved in the operation to silence Munir. Prosecutors, for example, cited the statement from former Garuda CEO Indra Setiawan that the order to assign Pollycarpus as the airplane security officer, so he could be on the same flight as Munir, came from BIN. Here, the name of BIN deputy head M. As'ad surfaced. In his previous trial, it emerged that Pollycarpus had repeatedly telephoned Muchdi P.R., then the BIN Deputy V. After Munir's death, Indra met with senior BIN officials to discuss the "next steps."

During his questioning, BIN agent Raden Muhammad Patma Anwar, testified he saw Pollycarpus in the agency's parking lot. In his trial, Pollycarpus always denied he had any links with BIN.

Patma Anwar also supplied the information that BIN had prepared more than one plan to finish off the activist. Patma Anwar, for example, was asked by an agent named Sentot Waluyo to blow up the car Munir was driving, put a curse on him, or poison him. But Munir died before the plan could be carried out. The PK states that neither Patma nor Sentot knew of the poisoning at Changi Airport. In his statement to the police, Patma Anwar said that Manunggal Maladi and Wahyu, BIN Deputy II and Deputy IV respectively, were well aware of his actions.

The PK is not perfect. There are gaps here and there. Ongen's statement that he sat at a different table from Polly and Munir at the Coffee Bean is refuted by Asrini Utami Putri, another passenger on Garuda flight GA-974. Asrini says that she saw the three sitting together. The AGO seems to want to pay more attention to Ongen's statement, which says he saw Polly carrying two glasses, while ignoring Asrini's testimony. Strangely, either unintentionally or perhaps because the AGO has another plan, Asrini's testimony is also included in the case review.

If Ongen is right – and he was consistent in his testimony when he later appeared in court – the AGO has practically no other ammunition. It does not have, for example, any evidence such as the glass or remnants of the poison. This is why prosecutors have decided to use the conditio sine qua non, meaning "indispensable action or condition," without which the death of Munir could not have happened, to convict Pollycarpus.

So is it all over? Not yet. The PK has prompted several questions, for example, why has Patma's testimony only emerged now, despite the fact he spoke to the police in June 2005. Neither has the review elaborated further on the motive for the murderbaccording to Patma Anwar, merely said: "Munir must die because the presidential election will take place shortly."

With such a weak PK, the AGO is doing somethingbwe must support – because it seems to be the only way to reveal who killed Munir. But it is a move with major consequences: if the AGO fails to convict Polly, the death of Munir will forever remain a mystery. The review is the final legal option. Polly cannot be tried a second time for the same crime. And it will be difficult to convict the other suspects – Indra Setiawan, Patma Anwar and other senior BIN officialsbthe murder is not found.

So, next week, we will witness an important trial, which will be both sensational and worrying. It will be a battle. Can the mystery of Munir's death be resolved; can we repay our debt to the departed?