Jakarta – State prosecutors charged Tuesday former Garuda Airlines director Indra Setiawan with the murder of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib, who died while traveling to the Netherlands in 2004.
Prosecutor Arief told the Central Jakarta District Court that Indra issued an assignment letter ordering pilot Polycarpus Budihari Priyanto to join Munir's flight on Aug. 11, 2004 as an aviation officer in order to poison the activist.
"Indra has admitted that he issued the letter of assignment upon the orders of the State Intelligence Agency because Garuda was considered a strategic industry that needed to be protected by the agency," Arief said in the indictment.
Polycarpus was the first defendant in the case to be brought to trial. The Central Jakarta District Court initially sentenced him to 14 years in prison for poisoning Munir but he was later acquitted of the murder charges by the Supreme Court. The panel of justices reduced his sentence to 24 months in prison for falsifying flight documents.
Polycarpus was freed in December 2006 but in June this year was once again brought to court following the prosecutors' request to the Supreme Court for a case review.
The prosecutors said they had found new evidence that allegedly linked the pilot with Munir's death. Among the evidence was a record of phone conversations between Polycarpus and Indra, mentioning that a high-ranking BIN official had told Indra to allow Polycarpus to board Munir's flight.
In response to the indictment, one of Indra's lawyers, Heru Wicaksono, asked the district court to reject the prosecution because the Supreme Court had acquitted Polycarpus of the murder charges.
"Thus it is now irrelevant to bring the topic of Indra helping Polycarpus to murder Munir to this court," he said in his objection to the indictment.
Another lawyer, Antawirya Dipodiputro, said that security considerations were behind Indra's decision to put Polycarpus on the same flight as Munir.
"The intelligence agency wanted to protect the flight by placing Polycarpus (on it)," he said, although he not say why the flight needed protection or what it was being protected from.
Presiding judge Heru Pramono adjourned the session to Oct. 24 to hear the prosecutor's responses.
Also on trial Tuesday was former Garuda secretary Rohainil Aini, who is also charged with taking part in the murder. She is accused of helping Indra give Polycarpus access to the flight. Rohainil's court session was adjourned to Oct. 25.
Munir was found dead on a Garuda flight to Amsterdam, where he was to continue his studies in law. The Dutch police were the first to examine the scene and said the activist's death was caused by arsenic poisoning. They said they suspected that the poison had come through food or beverages consumed by Munir.