Jakarta – The widow of murdered human rights activist Munir plans to file a civil suit against national flag carrier Garuda Airlines for negligence leading to her husband's death.
Suciwati, along with a team of lawyers from the Action Solidarity Committee for Munir, plans to charge the airline with negligence of passenger safety, which led to her husband's arsenic poisoning on a Garuda flight in September 2004. The case would be filed in court by mid-April, lawyers for Suciwati said.
Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Usman Hamid, who is a member of the legal team, said the case was one way to keep Munir's murder in the public eye. This was especially important because police and prosecutors seemed to have lost interest in bringing the masterminds of the murder to justice, he said.
Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto was found guilty by the Central Jakarta District Court in December last year of lacing the food served to Munir with a lethal dose of arsenic, during a Garuda flight to Amsterdam from Jakarta on Sept 7.
Judges at the trial noted there was evidence National Intelligence Agency (BIN) agents were involved in the killings after Pollycarpus was found to have made multiple phone calls to former agency deputy chief, Muchdi Purwo Prandjono, in the days before the murder. They and Kontras have called for a further investigation into the case.
Former BIN chief A.M. Hendropriyono has emphatically denied BIN had any role in Munir's murder, while Muchdi said he had lent his phone to subordinates, whom he blamed for making the calls.
Hendropriyono refused to meet members of a government fact-finding team investigating the murder last year because he said it had no legal right to question him.
During Pollycarpus' trial, prosecutors accused former Garuda deputy for corporate security Ramelgia Anwar of helping Pollycarpus get permission to travel on the same flight as Munir. Pollycarpus pled not guilty during the trial but was sentenced to 14 year's jail by the court. He is appealing the ruling.
The authorities seemed to have neglected facts pointing to a conspiracy to kill Munir and a further investigation into the case had stalled, Usman said. "We have planned this lawsuit because there is no progress in Munir's investigation and there is no good will on the part of the authorities to solve the case," he said.
Jakarta Legal Aid Institute director Uli Parulian Sihombing said the case would also encourage the public to put pressure on the government. "During the trial, we hope that Garuda will submit new evidence along with relevant witnesses," Uli said.
The lawsuit to be brought against Garuda also covers the distress caused by Garuda's initial claim Munir had suffered a heart attack on the plane. The plaintiffs are demanding an official apology from the airline is published in the media.
The head of Indonesian Human Rights Monitor, Rachlan Nashidik, said the lawsuit would also include scrutiny of Garuda's administrative policy.
Rachlan said justice, not money, was the motivation for bring a case against the airline. A lawyer, Uli, said the team had not yet determined the amount of damages it would seek from Garuda.