Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, Jakarta – Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said Friday the Attorney General's Office (AGO) would coordinate with the National Police to re-investigate the criminal elements surrounding the 2004 murder of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib.
"I have examined the Munir murder case and hopefully the National Police will help us provide more evidence in our attempt to consolidate the dossiers for the review of the case," he told reporters at his office.
The dossiers pertain to a review of the Supreme Court's decision to acquit off-duty Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto of all murder charges.
Pollycarpus was on the same flight as Munir from Jakarta to Singapore. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Central Jakarta District Court in December 2005 for his then-believed involvement in the murder.
The Supreme Court later overruled this verdict, sentencing him instead to two years in prison for forging his assignment letter to appear as an aviation security officer. The letter was signed several days after the murder.
Hendarman said investigators had only one chance to succeed in examining the murder case. "If this fails, then it's over. It's like constructing the foundations of a building. We cannot let the wind throw it down."
Munir died of arsenic poisoning on Sept. 7, 2004, while aboard a Garuda jetliner bound for the Netherlands after having departed Singapore, where he was in transit.
Speculation abounds on the exact location of Munir's poisoning. Singer Ongen Latuihamalo is suspected of involvement in the murder after it was revealed he met Munir at Singapore's Changi Airport during transit.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Sisno Adiwinoto told The Jakarta Post the police had handed over its evidence to the AGO.
"We handed the (extra) evidence to (the AGO) before we named the last two suspects (from Garuda)," he said, referring to former Garuda president Indra Setiawan and Rohainil Aini, the secretary to Garuda's chief pilot.
Sisno added that the police had the right to conceal the extra evidence from the public because it had already been handed over to prosecutors.