20 years in Prison for Pollycarpus

Press Release, January 25th 2008

This afternoon, the Supreme Court sentenced Pollycarpus to 20 years in prison because for his culpability in Munir’s murder. This decision (No. 109/PK/PID/2007) was made by five judges without a dissenting opinion. Bagir Manan was chairman and the other members of the bench consisted of Djoko Sarwoko, Haripin Tumpa, Djoko Sarwoko, Parman Suparman, and Paulus E. Lotulung.

The case showed that there was a political motive behind the killing of Munir. The prosecutor proved that Polycarpus Budihari Priyanto killed Munir and falsified a letter to Garuda Airlines to be on the same flight with Munir.

Moreover, the Supreme Court was convinced that the locus and tempus of crime was in Changi airport, rather than during the flight from Jakarta to Singapore. Arsenic was given to Munir 8 or 9 hours before he died. There are numbers of witness who saw Polly and Munir sitting together in a café at Changi airport, and there are witnesses who saw Polly bring two drinks to the table. Even though, there are no witness who saw Polly directly giving the poison to Munir there was enough circumstantial evidence to support this claim.

The judicial review of the Munir case against Pollycarpus took three months and we have been waiting for almost four months for the official decision of the Supreme Court. The judicial review covered all witnesses, including Joseph Ririmase, Asrini Utami Putri, Raymond JJ Latuihamallo alias Ongen and Raden Muhammad Patma Anwar alias Ucok. These witnesess never attended the initial trial of Pollycarpus in relation to Munir’s murder.

KontraS appreciates the Supreme Court’s efforts in addressing the involvement of Pollycarpus in Munir’s murder. We hope the statement of Supreme Court will be followed by additional steps to find the masterminds behind Munir’s murder. Polly was merely the weapon used by others to kill Munir.

Evidence presented by Budi Santoso in the trial of Indra Setiawan for his involvement in Munir’s murder have proven that there was a strong connection between Muchdi PR and Pollycarpus, in relation to Munir’s murder, including As’as signing a letter to Polly. The Police should therefore arrest Muchdi PR and As’ad, BIN Deputy soon as suspects in this case.

Jakarta, 25 January 2008

KontraS

The Commission for Dissapeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS)
Jl. Borobudur No. 14 Menteng
Jakarta Pusat 10320 Indonesia
phone : 62-21-3926983
fax : 62-21-3926821
email : kontras_98@kontras.org
www.kontras.org
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