Heru Andriyanto – The National Commission on Human Rights, or Komnas HAM, said on Wednesday that it planned to hire a team of five legal experts to examine the decision to acquit former top intelligence official Muchdi Purwoprandjono of charges that he masterminded the murder of a prominent rights activist four years ago.

Komnas HAM deputy chairman Ridha Saleh said that the team would be asked to take the judiciary's point of view in its examination of the acquittal of Muchdi, who was accused of ordering the murder of Munir Said Thalib.

The legal team, composed of experts in criminal law, legal procedures and human rights issues, would review trial documents, evidence and testimony to determine the legitimacy of the Dec. 31 acquittal, he said.

"The team will apply human rights principles in its examination [of the case]," Ridha told the Jakarta Globe. "They will dig into the verdict to find out if the judges had other interests in mind when they made their decision. The legal team will examine if justice was served through the verdict", said Ridha Saleh, deputy chair of the National Commission on Human Rights

"It will examine, particularly from the perspective of human rights, if justice was served through the South Jakarta District Court's verdict," he said. The team is scheduled to start working next week.

The plan was announced less than three weeks after lawyers for Muchdi visited the commission to seek protection against those challenging his acquittal.

Mahendradatta, one of the lawyers, said Muchdi had been backed into a corner by state officials, the media and the commission itself, which had presumed he was guilty even before the trial began.

During the meeting, Muchdi's lawyers demanded that the commission protect legal certainty for Muchdi, refrain from making comments on the verdict and from pushing for an appeal against the acquittal. They also submitted a similar request to the Judicial Commission, which oversees the conduct of judges.

Judges cited the failure of prosecutors to prove that Muchdi had a clear motive in the September 2004 murder of Munir or that he had any links with Pollycarpus Priyanto, a former pilot with state-owned airline Garuda Indonesia who last year was convicted of carrying out the murder and sentenced to 20 years in jail, when it decided to clear the 60-year-old former military general of all charges.

Prosecutors responded by lodging an appeal against the acquittal with the Supreme Court.

Munir, who at the time of his death was the country's most prominent human rights activist and military critic, died of arsenic poisoning during a Garuda Indonesia flight bound for Amsterdam.

According to prosecutors, Muchdi ordered the murder of Munir, who had accused the Army's Special Forces of kidnapping 13 rights activists. Prosecutors said Muchdi lost his position as commander of the Special Forces in May 1998 as a result of Munir's accusations.