Tom Allard and Karuni Rompies – Indonesian prosecutors yesterday asked for a prison sentence of 15 years for the intelligence operative and former Kopassus commander Muchdi Purwopranjano, who they allege organised the assassination by arsenic poisoning of a prominent human rights activist.
The prosecutor, Cirus Sinaga, described Muchdi as the "initiator" of the murder of Munir Said Thalib, but called for a light sentence. "Muchdi has served the country and received many medals for that," he said. "We must respect that."
The request follows a lengthy battle to get to the bottom of who orchestrated the killing, which took place on a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam.
The case is a test of the accountability of the military and intelligence elite in the new, democratic Indonesia.
The "premeditated murder" of Munir was undertaken by an Indonesian state intelligence (BIN) agent and former airline pilot, Pollycarpus Priyanto, who slipped the dose of arsenic into a drink during a stopover in Singapore. Pollycarpus was jailed for 20 years.
Muchdi was a deputy director at BIN at the time of the assassination in 2004 and had briefly commanded Kopassus, the special forces unit. He was relieved of that post after Munir revealed details of its role in the disappearance of student activists.
Munir's widow, Suciwati, told reporters after yesterday's hearing: "Logically, the initiator must get life. I hope the panel of judges will listen to their conscience when deciding the case."
Munir's friend, the human rights activist Usman Hamid, said prosecutors had been intimidated into requesting the lesser sentence. "Their request does not satisfy the demands of justice," he said.
"It repeats the precedent set by Tommy Soeharto [the son of the former president Soeharto] who killed a Supreme Court justice and got 15 years in the lower court, but then got it reduced to 10 years in higher court.
"Due to several remissions, in total he only served less than five years' imprisonment."
The hearing was adjourned until December 11 to hear Muchdi's response to the sentence request.