Testimony by a senior intelligence agent corroborates the link between BIN and Pollycarpus. Police claim to have written evidence.
The court appearance by the senior agent from the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) is now being eagerly awaited. Currently on duty at the Indonesian embassy in Pakistan, Budi Santoso is scheduled to give evidence at a court hearing into the murder of human rights activist Munir on Tuesday this week.
Edi Saputra, the public prosecutor in the case, has pledged to do his utmost to ensure Santoso appears in court. "If this fails, we will read out his police interrogation report in court," he said.
The prosecution hopes that Santoso will be able to reveal the truth behind a recommendation letter from BIN addressed to former Garuda Indonesia Airlines CEO Indra Setiawan in 2004. The letter allegedly contains a recommendation that senior Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto was to be assigned to the company's Corporate Security Unit.
It was in his capacity as a staff member of this unit that Pollycarpus few to Singapore on September 6, 2004 on Garuda flight GA-974. It was on this flight that he exchanged seats with Munir, who was on his way to Amsterdam, Holland. Several witnesses have stated that they also saw Pollycarpus together with Munir during the transit in Singapore – although Pollycarpus has denied this. Several minutes after re-boarding the flight in Singapore, Munir complained of a stomachache. Seven hours later, he was dead.
Indra revealed the existence of the letter in an earlier court hearing. He was not however able to produce the letter because according to Indra, it disappeared at the Sahid Hotel parking lot in Jakarta in late 2004. It is from Santoso's testimony therefore that the prosecution is hoping to be able to corroborate the existence of the letter.
Speaking to police who have now questioned him on two occasions, Santoso admitted to knowing Pollycarpus. Santoso told police that they first met on June 14, 2005 at his office at BIN, in the East Pejaten area of South Jakarta. At the time Pollycarpus introduced himself as a Garuda pilot and claimed to have just left the office of Muchdi Purwoprandjono, then BIN's Deputy Director for Agent Mobilization. Several days later, Pollycarpus returned to Santoso's office.
"Pollycarpus asked for help to correct a letter that he had drafted and typed up himself – not handwritten – in connection with a letter for him to be assigned to Garuda Corporate Security," said Santoso, as quoted by a Tempo source who is well acquainted with the investigation.
Santoso said that he corrected two things in the letter: the position of the words "Dear Director," which was initially on the left and should have been on the right, along with several awkward sentences that did not conform to BIN's formal language. The letter was address to CEO of PT Garuda Indonesia. Beneath it was a column for the signature of BIN's Deputy Director M. As'ad. "After I corrected it, I gave the letter straight back to Pollycarpus," he said as quoted by the source.
Santoso admitted to police that Pollycarpus might then have taken the corrected letter to the general bureau to be typed up and given a number. The other possibility is that the letter was issued by another unit that borrowed the deputy's number and official stamp. Meaning that the general bureau would not have any knowledge of or an archive copy of the letter.
Santoso told police that because of his closeness to Muchdi, Pollycarpus might also have taken the corrected letter back to Muchdi to be re-typed. "Usually, such a letter would be in the archives at the general bureau. But there would be no archive copy if the deputy had issued it, just a block number and borrowed seal," said Santoso as recorded in the police investigation report.
On the question of his position at BIN, Santoso said that Pollycarpus was only a member of the network. The pilot did not hold a structural position in the intelligence organization. Investigators, according to the source, then asked if Santoso had ever spoken about Pollycarpus's letter with Muchdi. He replied he had never done so.
The same source also said that Santoso claimed to have often communicated with Pollycarpus by phone. He also confirmed that police had seized data on his telephone contacts with the pilot, specifically on the dates August 23, 2004, September 3, 2004, September 7, 2004 and September 9, 2004 – on the days around the time of Munir's murder.
According to Santoso, in every telephone conversation Pollycarpus asked about Muchdi's whereabouts. "So, I sometimes became the contact between Pollycarpus and Muchdi," said Santoso, as written in the police investigation report.
Santoso also said that Pollycarpus contacted him several times in late September and throughout November 2004. The pilot provided considerable input on the issue of Papua, because Santoso was also the head of BIN's Papua desk.
Police questioned Santoso on two occasions, on October 3 and 8, 2007. On neither occasion was he accompanied by a lawyer. When asked to elaborate on the information he gave to police, the agent refused to answer. When contacted in Pakistan from Jakarta, several times he said: "I can't discuss it." Speaking to journalists, Pollycarpus has repeatedly denied knowing Santoso. Despite this, however, he has stated that he is ready to confront the senior agent. "Go ahead and present [him] to the court. I've even asked Pak As'ad to attend," said the Airbus pilot.
Pollycarpus's lawyer M. Assegaf is doubtful about Santoso's testimony. He believes that his client would not have been able to write a draft letter such as that. "His Indonesian is really messy, where would he have got the idea to write a draft letter?" he said.
According to Assegaf, Santoso's claims only add to the mystery about the truth behind the letter from BIN to Garuda. The earlier mystery, he said, was why Indra held on to the letter for months and months before it was lost at the Sahid Hotel parking lot in late December 2004. "It was an official letter, it had a BIN letterhead, it was addressed to Garuda's executive director. Where's the logic in Indra keeping hold of it for months and months?" he said.
Assegaf has suggested that the court immediately summon As'ad, Muchdi, and Santoso to appear and give evidence. According to Assegaf, it is important to compare their testimonies against the evidence that Pollycarpus has given.
For quite different reasons, activists from the Solidarity Action Committee for Munir are also demanding that current and former BIN officials appear in court. "The seriousness of the police, the prosecution and the Supreme Court in shedding light on Munir's murder is slackening," said Usman Hamid, executive secretary of the committee.
So far, it has proved impossible to contact Muchdi to request his confirmation on the case. Tempo visited his house in the Kebayoran area of South Jakarta twice on Friday last week, and according to the security guard at the house, his boss is currently out of town with his family.
Muchdi's lawyer Lutfi Hakim claims not to have any knowledge about recent developments in the case. He said that he had only just returned home from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, last week. While he admits to having been able to communicate with his client before departing for Jeddah, he says they did not, however, discuss the Munir case.
Santoso graduated from the Indonesian Armed Forces Academy in 1973 – in the same class as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. His career in the military started as the commander of the Kaimana Subdistrict Military Command in Papua. He then went on to become the head of the operational section of the Fakfak District Military Command, also in Papua.
After shifting assignments in a number of different cities, Santoso's career in the military ended after he became the Assistant for Logistics with the Diponegoro IV Regional Military Command in Central Java. His final rank was colonel engineer. After this he joined BIN. In 2000, he transferred to become a state civil servant. He is now a senior BIN agent on duty in Pakistan.
When Munir was murdered in 2004, Santoso was BIN's Director I for Operational Planning & Control and Muchdi's subordinate. In a police investigation report dated May 18, 2005, Muchdi said that the duties of the Director I at BIN are general operational planning and control. "I am the one that designates the operational targets," said the former Commander of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus).
When speaking to police however, Santoso said that his duties as BIN's Director I were simply to deal with matters related to personnel, materials, logistics and finances. He claimed that one of his duties was to obtain land to establish an international intelligence school in Batam. Within this project he was the technical supervisor and Muchdi was his liaison officer.
According to a Tempo source, police have written evidence to corroborate Santoso's testimony. And this evidence will be revealed in court. An investigator said: "Other evidence may have vanished, but there was still evidence that we were able find."
[Budi Setyarso and Bayu Galih.]