An Indonesian court has sentenced Garuda Airlines pilot Polycarpus Priyanto to 14 years jail for the murder of prominent human rights activist Munir Thalib. Munir was poisoned during a flight to Amsterdam in September, 2004.

Presenter/Interviewer: Peter Cave

Speakers: Asmara Nababan, Executive Director, Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies in Indonesia; Polycarpus Priyanto

Cave: As he has for most of the trial, Polycarpus sat mostly impassively as the five judges took two hours to summarise the evidence against him. Finally he was asked to stand to hear his sentence.

Chief Judge: The defendant, Polycarpus Budihari Priyanto, has been proven legally and convincingly guilty of premeditated murder and document forgery. He will be punished for his actions with 14 years imprisonment.

Cave: Only then did he show some emotion.

Polycarpus: Thank you for all the accusation and the sentence. I reject them because I didn't do it. thank you.

Cave: The prosecution case had been patchy to say the least, but the judges summarised their findings precisely. Polycarpus had forged airline rosters to ensure he got himself a business class passenger seat on Munir's flight.

He offered the activist the seat and then with the assistance of two flight attendants who are yet to be charged he ensured that a fatal dose of arsenic was given to him in a plate of noodles, not in a glass of orange juice as claimed by the prosecution.

The meal was served between Jakarta and Singapore where Polycarpus got off, and by the time the flight was high over Europe, Munir was dead.

The court found that Polycarpus was a strong nationalist who had a motive to murder Munir but that the murder had been planned in phone conversations with other conspirators yet to be determined.

(DEMO)

Several hundred human rights protesters staged a noisy demonstration outside the court demanding justice and demanding that Hendropriyono, the former head of the National Intelligence Agency BIN, be brought to book for the murder.

Munir was a long time thorn in the side of successive Indonesian administrations, and none more so that that of Megawati Sukarnoputri as he repeatedly demanded that some of the country's most powerful generals be investigated for their part in atrocities in East Timor.

Hendropriyono stepped down from the job when the present government came to power shortly after the murder.

Asmara Nababan is Executive Director for the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies in Indonesia.

Nababan: Of course the court did not mention who the other parties are, especially who gave the order. But it is clear that the court gave some indications that need to be followed up by the police.

Cave: Do you think there will be?

Nababan: Well, it depends on the president. If the president has a strong commitment to deliver his promise.

Cave: Do you believe the state intelligence agency, BIN, was involved?

Nababan: Well, I believe some officers and former officers of BIN are involved.