Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said Friday he would summon senior officials at the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) after he received case review results from the previously acquitted Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto.
"We are still waiting for the result of the case review and after that we will start the next investigation," Sutanto told detik.com Wednesday.
BIN's involvement in the murder case of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib has long been suspected. But until recently, no strong evidence had been submitted against Pollycarpus or BIN.
In a court session last month prosecutors presented a telephone recording between the off-duty Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus and former president director of the flag carrier, Indra Setiawan, who is now in jail.
BIN officials allegedly involved in the murder include former BIN head A.M. Hendropriyono, BIN deputy head M. As'ad, first deputy Manunggal Maladi and fourth deputy Muchdi PR.
As'ad was mentioned in the recording as the person who instructed Indra to assign Pollycarpus to act as an aviation security officer. Muchdi is connected to the case because the fact-finding team on Munir's case traced 41 phone calls between Muchdi and Pollycarpus.
There has so far not been enough evidence collected against two further officials and the investigation around Muchdi was stopped without a clear explanation.
Sutanto has denied allegations the police were postponing investigations on purpose. "Police will investigate them – everyone who violates the law will go through the legal process," he said.
Pollycarpus has been the only person legally connected to the murder case and was previously sentenced to 14 years in jail on December 2005. But the Supreme Court threw out his original conviction and he was instead sentenced to two years in prison on October 2006 for forging his letter of assignment as an aviation security officer. He was freed in December 2006.
The Attorney General's Office has since filed a case review aiming to overturn Pollycarpus' acquittal.
After five court trials, the Central Jakarta District Court on Wednesday completed the preliminary trials of the case review on Pollycarpus. "This is the last trial session for the review and we will send all dossiers to the Supreme Court soon," Judge Andriani Nurdin told the court Wednesday.
She said prosecutors had submitted a letter of recommendation around Raden Mohammad Patma Anwar (alias Ucok), from BIN as evidence. Ucok was one of the key witnesses in the case who acknowledged that as BIN member, he once received an order from a BIN senior official to kill Munir. But Ucok was unable to prove he was a member of BIN.
With the emergence of new evidence in the Munir case, pressure is mounting for a thorough and rapid investigation of the circumstances surrounding the death of the activist.