Agus Triyono & Ulma Haryanto – Claiming to have new evidence that could overturn his sentence, the convicted murderer of rights campaigner Munir Said Thalib on Tuesday registered a case review with the Central Jakarta District Court.
The lawyer of Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, who is serving 20 years for the September 2004 murder, claimed the acquittal of the man who allegedly masterminded the murder, Muchdi Purwoprandjono, should in turn clear Pollycarpus of charges.
"The acquittal of Muchdi is now final and binding at the Supreme Court, so it's reasonable that we use it as new evidence," said Muhammad Assegaf, an attorney for the convict.
Prosecutors have claimed that Muchdi, the former deputy head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), and Pollycarpus communicated before and after the murder.
"Muchdi was acquitted because the purported conversations couldn't be proved in the court, so that's our new evidence," Assegaf said.
The district court will examine the case review documents before sending them to the Supreme Court, which will then decide whether to accept them or not.
Assegaf claimed he had two new witnesses who would testify for Pollycarpus but declined to identify them for safety reasons. He said the Supreme Court judges who convicted his client had made a "fatal mistake" concerning the crime scene.
"Pollycarpus was accused of poisoning Munir with arsenic during a Jakarta-Singapore flight, meaning that the crime scene was inside the plane," he said. "But [the verdict] was different, it said the poisoning occurred at Changi Airport in Singapore."
Pollycarpus, who was an off-duty pilot for Garuda Indonesia during the time of the murder, has maintained his innocence.
A group of Munir's supporters, the Committee of Action and Solidarity for Munir (Kasum), immediately called on the Supreme Court to turn down the case review request.
"During the court hearings, either as a defendant or witness, Pollycarpus showed he was a man with low credibility," Kasum said in a statement. "His testimonies and admissions were conflicting."
In a recent interview, Choirul Anam, director of Human Rights Working Group in Indonesia, said prosecutors and police had the recorded conversation between Pollycarpus and Muchdi, which could also serve as new evidence.
"Bambang Hendarso Danuri, then-chief of detectives, told us in person that the recording did exist," Choirul said. "A prosecutor familiar with the case said the same thing. We recorded their statements on that issue, so we are wondering why prosecutors do not request a case review into the Muchdi case."
Muchdi is now a member of the Islam-based United Development Party (PPP).