Jakarta – Former president director of state airline company Garuda Indonesia, Indra Setiawan, confessed Monday that pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto was assigned as a Corporate Security staff by the request from the National Intelligent Agency (BIN).

The fact that was kept a secret during the former trial of Pollycarpus, was revealed to the public during Indra's testimony during the trial of deputy V BIN Muchdi Purwopranjono, at South Jakarta District Court, on Tuesday.

"There was neither tension nor pressure, but I would rather not answer this question," Indra said when asked about his silence during former trials on the murder of human rights activist Munir Said Talib.

Polycarpus has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for his role Munir's murder.

In his testimony, he said the assignment request came through a secret and sealed letter demanding Polly be transferred to Garuda's Corporate Security division, signed by the then BIN chief director M. As'ad.

"I regard the letter as a civic duty. It is mentioned in the letter that Garuda needed to increase its security level by adding corporate security staff," he added.

Indra also said he didn't know the whereabouts of the letter, since it went missing from his car along with other documents on 31 December, 2004. (ast)