Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – The AGO has come under fire for failing to build a strong case against a former top spy in the murder of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib.
Maj. Gen. (ret) Muchdi Purwopranjono, former deputy head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), was acquitted last year by the South Jakarta District Court of all charges of masterminding the 2004 murder of Munir.
Legislators said Monday the Attorney General's Office had failed to present important witnesses, including BIN official Budi Santoso, during Muchdi's trial.
Prosecutors also failed to defend the evidence and testimonies against the defendant, which were presented to them by key witnesses prior to the case going to court.
"Budi Santoso's testimony, which was important in proving Muchdi's involvement in the case, was among those that prosecutors failed to present before the court," legislator Gayus Lumbuun said Monday at a hearing between Attorney General Hendarman Supandji and the House of Representatives' legal affairs commission.
After serving at the BIN headquarters, Budi Santoso has now been posted to the Indonesian Embassy in Pakistan as an intelligence representative. Despite being summoned multiple times to appear and testify at Muchdi's trial, the elusive witness failed to show up.
However, in a written statement presented by prosecutors, Budi retracted his written testimony given to the police against his former boss. Later on, almost all witnesses in the case made similar retractions, claiming various reasons.
Attorney General Hendarman Supandji told the House commission that his office had done all that it could do to bulwark the evidence and testimonies against the defendant.
However, he admitted that the sudden decisions by the witnesses to retract their written statements had weakened prosecutors' efforts to indict Muchdi.
Hendarman said he was similarly disappointed with the court's ruling, saying the judges had chosen to overlook several key pieces of evidence and legal facts that could have led to the suspect's conviction in the case. "That's why we filed an appeal with the Supreme Court in January to challenge the court verdict," he said.
Legislator Nursyahbani Katjasungkana of the National Awakening Party (PKB), who also attended the hearing, said she was quite pessimistic about the appeal, and accused prosecutors of dealing with the case "halfheartedly".
"This was made evident during the trial, when prosecutors only sought 15 years' imprisonment for Muchdi. It was much less than the sentence demanded for another defendant in this case, Polycarpus [Budihari Priyanto], who was jailed for 20 years for the murder," she said.
In response, Hendarman said the only reason prosecutors had demanded a more lenient sentence for Muchdi than for Polycarpus was because they had taken into consideration his services over the years to the nation while serving as a soldier.
"Muchdi once did the country a big favor. This is something that we as prosecutors had to consider, while Polycarpus' track records did not say the same thing," he said, adding the former BIN deputy chief had received 13 medal of honor from the state.