Jakarta – Police investigators defended Wednesday procedures used in the interrogation of a key witness in the Munir case who has now retracted his testimony.

Raymon "Ongen" J.J. Latuihamallo was due to testify at the acquittal review of Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, who was initially convicted of the 2004 murder of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib.

In a court session last week Ongen retracted the parts of his original statement in which he claimed to have seen Pollycarpus carrying two beverages at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cafe in Singapore's Changi Airport, and that he saw Pollycarpus and Munir speaking in the cafe.

Ongen said the police investigator, Mathius Salempang, threatened that he would be charged as a suspect in the murder case and would not be allowed to fly to the Netherlands to promote his album.

Mathius was then presented by the prosecutors to counter Ongen's statement. He said that as the leader of the investigation team in the case, most of the time he only received reports from his team members about developments in the investigation process.

"On April 2, Ongen came to the National Police Detective Division as a witness in the case. I was not there at that time," Brig. Gen. Mathius Salempang told the judges in the third court session of the review.

He added that one of the team's members, Sr. Comr. Pambudi Pamungkas, reported to him that Ongen refused to talk every time investigators asked him about the event in the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cafe.

"Finally I went to see him and he asked me to call a preacher for him. I got him one," he said, adding that they later prayed together. "After that, we went to the investigation room and Ongen finally spoke," Mathius said.

He added that he was not part of the investigation process in the following days because he had meetings with expert witnesses for the case.

Mathius said that Pambudi then came to him again on April 4, reporting that the team had finished interrogating Ongen. He also said that Ongen asked permission to leave for the Netherlands. So he ordered Pambudi to let Ongen go.

"I was also not there when he signed the dossier. How could I threaten him?" Mathius said.

Ongen responded that Mathius had threatened him in front of the preacher and during his five-day detention at the National Police Headquarters and during the 22 days he was held at the police's Mobile Brigade headquarters.

He said later that the last two threats happened after he signed his statement.

According to Mathius, Ongen was being held in a protective step to guarantee his safety as a key witness in the case. "Besides, we did that based on a written request from his lawyer, Ozhak Sihotang," Mathius said.

Officer Pambudi, a member of the investigation team, who testified after Mathius, said that during the five interrogation sessions, Ongen was always accompanied by his lawyer except for the first session.

"All his testimony was recorded in the statement, which he and his lawyer read before they signed it," he said. Ongen said that while he and his lawyer had read the statement, he had signed it under pressure.

After the testimony of Mathius and Pambudi, the prosecutor also presented I Made Agus Genggeng Wirasuta, a forensic toxicology researcher at Udayana University, who confirmed that Munir died of arsenic poisoning.

He said Munir had consumed the arsenic orally and felt the impact between eight and nine hours afterwards. Munir died on Sept. 7, 2007 on Garuda flight 974 to Amsterdam, which included a stopover in Singapore. The next hearing session is scheduled for Sept. 12.