Police suspect that efforts to poison Munir were not only made at Changi Airport in Singapore but also during the Singapore-Amsterdam flight. Indonesian Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh has confirmed that this operation was planned months in advance.
Changi Airport, Singapore September 7, 2004: 1am (12am Western Indonesia Time-WIB)
Garuda flight GA-974 arrived from Jakarta 20 minutes ago. Passengers were given about an hour to transit before continuing their journey to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Only a few stores were still open at Changi early that Monday morning. SA, 25, a passenger in business class, took a short walk.
While headed for the D42 waiting area, where passengers would re-board their flight, SA passed by the Coffee Bean. This Indonesian who lives in Germany stops by this cafe every six months while on his way back to Indonesia. "As I recall, at that time Coffee Bean was closed, and so I didn't stop by," this passenger told Tempo on Monday last week.
SA saw Munir, the human rights activist who SA said was "unimportant but very popular," sitting on a Coffee Bean sofa. There were two men in front of him. One had long hair, rather tall and had a pale complexion. Police are convinced this was Ongen Latuihamallo. While waiting to re-board the plane, SA was introduced to this musician from Maluku by Josep Ririmase, a passenger who sat next to him.
The man who was talking with Munir wore glasses. According to SA, the man fit the description of Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, the Garuda pilot who was tried in the Munir murder case. "I'm not accusing him, but that person really resembled Pollycarpus," said SA.
At that time, the Coffee Bean was located in an open space on the second floor transit area of Changi Airport. For this reason, according to SA, even though it was closed, people could still sit on the cafe's sofa. "I clearly saw those three talking there," said SA.
SA said that those three men were not eating or drinking anything. However, another witness, according to a Tempo source at the Attorney General's Office (AGO), said differently.
Garuda Cabin GA-974 September 7, 2004, 3am WIB
Munir, who sat in 40-G, economy class, made frequent trips to the bathroom, due to diarrhea and vomiting. He felt something wrong with his stomach when the plane was getting ready to take off from Changi. He had asked the stewardess for some stomachache medicine, but it was not available.
Munir asked flight attendant Bondan Hernawan to seek Dr Tarmizi Hakim for his help. He handed him the name card which he had just received while in transit at Changi from this surgeon at Harapan Kita Hospital. Tarmizi was seated in seat 1-J in business class, and Munir headed for the front of the plane.
After being awakened from a deep sleep, Tarmizi treated Munir. He asked the stewardess to open the plane's emergency medical kit. However, according to him, none of the medicine was suitable for Munir. So he gave Munir two tablets of New Diatabs (diarrhea medicine) and one each of Zantacts and Promag (for nausea and stomach pain) from his carry-on bag. He also asked the stewardess to make a glass of tea mixed with salt for Munir. His seat was moved to 4-D in business class so that he could be closer to the doctor.
Yet after taking those four tablets, Munir continued to have diarrhea and vomiting. Tarmizi injected one vial of Primperan from the plane's medical kit into Munir's left arm. The activist's condition appeared to improve and he slept. However, three hours later he returned to the bathroom for about 10 minutes.
Madjib Radjab Nasution, a Garuda purser, went ahead and opened the locked bathroom door. "I saw Pak Munir leaning against the wall," he said, according to his police questioning file. Tarmizi then asked Madjib and flight attendant Asep Rohman to help carry Munir back to seat 4-D.
Tarmizi tapped Munir's stomach, who writhed in pain. The doctor continued to keep his hand on the upper part of his stomach, while expressing his concern over the severity of Munir's condition.
Tarmizi injected 5 milligrams of Diazepam in Munir's right shoulder. Munir then slept on the floor in front of seat 4-E. The flight attendant gave him a pillow and three blankets, one to sleep on, and two to keep warm.
Munir appeared to sleep, but often changed position. "He was always on his side, never on his back or stomach," said Madjib. When the plane reached an altitude of 40,000 feet over Romania at 10am WIB, Madjib found that saliva was coming out of Munir's mouth, although he was not foaming at the mouth. His palms were blue, and his arms were cold.
Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam September 7, 2004: 8:11am (1:11pm WIB)
Three hundred and sixty passengers – 14 in business class and 346 in economy class – were restless. They had flown for over 12 hours from Singapore and the plane had landed half an hour earlier. However, they had not yet been allowed to exit the plane. "We were all asked to stay seated," said Ibu Drupadi Dillon, 56, a passenger in seat 58-B, to Tempo, on Wednesday last week.
This nutritionist from the University of Indonesia said that many of the passengers were upset. At that time, Drupadi, who was studying at the University of Wageningen, suspected that The Netherlands had enacted a new policy- sterilizing all arriving planes. Only later did she realize that something important had happened in business class, way up front.
Munir died two and a half hours before the plane landed. The flight crew reported the death to Schiphol Airport. Dutch Police entered and took the body away as soon as the Boeing 747-400 had landed. This is why the passengers were stuck inside the plane for over 30 minutes.
Amid the passengers' impatience, a crew member came up to Ongen Latuihamallo, a long-haired man sitting in seat 50-H. To the news agency at 68H Radio, on November 12, 2004, Ongen said: "That person (the Garuda crew member-Ed.) whispered to me, 'Munir died'."
Almost three years after the death of Munir Said Thalib, police conclude there is a connection between certain events. Based on the findings of the forensic test conducted on the sample of the toxin by the CCL Tequika forensic lab in Seattle, USA, police concluded that the arsenic which killed Munir entered his body while in transit at Changi.
Two weeks ago, the police submitted this finding to the AGO as new evidence, as part of a request for a case review to the Supreme Court, which had previously acquitted Pollycarpus of a 14-year prison sentence on the accusation of being an accomplice in the murder of Munir.
Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh feels that the police have submitted strong evidence. He said that Munir was killed by an operation which had been planned long in advance. "He had been a target for months, not just on that day alone," he told Tempo, last week.
Why was Munir a target? According to Abdul Rahman, to some groups, Munir was considered a nuisance. It is already common knowledge, he said, that Indonesians once lived under a very powerful government. Meanwhile, Munir was known as an activist who fought for human rights, democracy, and openness. "Munir was one person who was considered a thorn in someone's side, and it had to be removed," said Abdul Rahman.
Munir's plan to go to The Netherlands to continue his studies at Utrecht University was the starting point of the operation. "It was known to the killers which plane he was going to board and at what time," said this former Supreme Court judge.
The killers, who were not originally scheduled to board the plane, according to Abdul Rahman, forced their way onto the flight by having their schedule changed. This indicated the killers had considerable clout. "Some had a great deal of authority over the airlines," he said.
Abdul Rahman said that investigators have been able to conclusively determine where Munir was poisoned. "It is already known where and with whom Munir last ate," he said. "There is more than one witness."
Abdul Rahman did not mention the identity of the person suspected to be the killer. However, from the results of police investigation, it is known that Pollycarpus was on Garuda flight GA-974 from Jakarta to Singapore on September 6, 2004, based on the reassignment letter signed by Rohainil Aini, an airline official for flight support operations.
On that day, Pollycarpus was actually scheduled to fly to Beijing, China. The departure to Singapore was arranged five or six hours beforehand. Rohainil is now in custody, suspected of abetting the murder, together with former Garuda CEO Indra Setiawan.
On the Jakarta-Singapore flight, Pollycarpus traded his 3-K seat in business class with Munir's seat in economy class. Police conclude that this move was done to shorten the time Munir had to wait to get off the plane in Changi. In this way, there would be more time to carry out the murder operation.
In the transit area at Changi Airport, Pollycarpus and Ongen Latuihamallo sat with Munir at the Coffee Bean. A witness saw them eating. Last week, Pollycarpus denied this. "I don't know the Coffee Bean. I am not acquainted with Ongen Latuihamallo," he said, as heard from a recording on the telephone of his lawyer, M. Assegaf, which was played back for reporters.
A Tempo source in the police said that the arsenic used to kill Munir was dissolved in "liquid." All of the witnesses who saw the meeting at the Coffee Bean are now in the police's witness protection program. The same is true of Ongen Latuihamallo.
The choice of poison and location for the murder indicates a well-devised plan. Arsenic was chosen because it is colorless, tasteless, odorless and quickly dissolves in liquid. According to the fact-finding team formed by President Yudhoyono in 2005, the use of arsenic was intended to cover up the cause of death.
The flight which was chosen for the murder was done to prevent Munir from obtaining sufficient medical assistance. In this way, it was ensured that his life could not be saved.
Who would be capable of such a well-organized operation? Accusations were immediately directed towards the State Intelligence Agency (BIN). Moreover, there was telephone contact between Pollycarpus and this institution's office and one of its officials in the days surrounding the murder. A.M. Hendropriyono, then the BIN chief, rejected this. To Tempo, two weeks ago, he said: "I never signed any letter naming Munir as a target of an operation."
- Budi Setyarso