The widow of an Indonesian human rights activist who was fatally poisoned on an international flight has called for Australia to rethink its security treaty with Indonesia.
Munir Talib Sahir became violently ill on a Garuda flight to Amsterdam in September 2004 and was pronounced dead shortly before arrival. An autopsy revealed he had died from arsenic poisoning.
A Garuda co-pilot was found guilty of his murder in December 2005, but the Supreme Court quashed the conviction 10 months later, citing insufficient evidence.
Munir's widow Suciwati told a parliamentary inquiry into the security treaty that her husband had been killed because he dreamed of democracy for Indonesia.
"Munir had a dream of having Indonesia with democracy, of having Indonesia with human rights, and also having military professionals," Suciwati, speaking through an interpreter, told the joint standing committee on treaties.
"But just because he had this dream he was killed, because he was very vocal and very active in criticising military abuses and also criticising government abuses in order to have a better government, democratic government and professional military."
Suciwati said she believed her husband's murder was a conspiracy involving airline officials and state intelligence agencies.
She appeared at the inquiry with Indonesian Solidarity, a group calling for the security treaty to be rejected.
Indonesia Solidarity has raised concerns over the commitment to non-interference in each country's internal affairs and provisions allowing cooperation between intelligence and law enforcement agencies in both countries.
Its concerns were echoed by an Australian civil rights group, which called for the agreement to be rewritten to protect Australian travellers from the death penalty in Indonesia.
Civil Liberties Australia said six of the Bali Nine drug smuggling ring were on death row because of information given to Indonesian authorities by the Australian Federal Police.
"We now have six Australians on death row – sentenced to death in Bali – as a result of that," spokesman William Rowlings told the hearing.
"We don't believe it's appropriate for the Australian Federal Police to pass intelligence to the Indonesians or any other government or any other police force where it could result in Australians or the nationals of those countries or any other countries suffering the death penalty.
"The reason for that is that we support this parliament. This parliament legislated that the Australian standard would be that the death penalty doesn't apply, so we should not export that death penalty."