Jakarta – Former National Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy chief Muchdi Purwopranjono said he did not know former Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, who was convicted of murdering human rights activist Munir Thalib.

"Muchdi does not know Pollycarpus and is neither involved directly nor indirectly in the Munir case," Luthfi Hakim, one of Muchdi's lawyers, said Friday in between his client's questioning.

He said his client knew nothing about the murder and that he had not had any phone conversation with Pollycarpus, but admitted that his client's office number was once used to dial Pollycarpus' home. "It was just a connection between phone numbers, not between Muchdi and Pollycarpus," Hakim said.

Muchdi also denied sending a letter to PT Garuda, the country's flag carrier, to request for Pollycarpus to be placed on the same flight as Munir, the lawyer said. "Muchdi never wrote the letter nor asked anyone to write the letter," he said.

Commenting on laboratory analysis indicating that the letter was typed on Muchdi's computer, the lawyer further denied his client's involvement as the latter was said to not have owned a computer in his office and could not operate a computer.

Muchdi responded to 36 questions posed by the police during the first round of questioning, which was temporarily halted for lunch and Friday prayer, he said. Muchdi signed an arrest warrant but has not been jailed yet as he was still being questioned Friday.

Police previously named Muchdi as a suspect in the murder of the country's leading rights activist Munir, summoning him to the National Police Headquarters for questioning on Friday, June 20. Muchdi, however, handed himself in on Thursday, Nataprawira said.

Muchdi PR's name was mentioned during the trials of two other people involved in Munir's murder. A Munir case fact-finding team had also recommended he should be questioned.

The two people who have already been tried and convicted for Munir's murder are former Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto and former PT Garuda airline company president director Indra Setiawan. The two were sentenced to 20 years and 1 year imprisonment, respectively.

Munir died of arsenic poisoning during a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam in September 2004.