Pilot 'poisoned activist'

2005-08-03 14:56

Jakarta - Indonesian prosecutors believe poisoned orange juice was used to kill a leading human rights activist who died from arsenic poisoning on a flight to the Netherlands in September, said a lawyer on Wednesday.

The activist, Munir, died in the business class of a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam. An autopsy by Dutch authorities found a lethal dose of arsenic in his body.

But, there had so far been no information on how the arsenic was administered.

Garuda Indonesia airline pilot Pollycarpus Priyanto was to go on trial on Tuesday after he was accused of involvement in the murder.

Mohammed Assegaf, a lawyer who was defending him, said prosecutors believed his client put arsenic into a glass of orange juice offered to Munir.

Munir 'chose to drink juice'

Assegaf said prosecutors, in their indictment, said Priyanto put poison into a glass of orange juice, which was offered, along with a glass of wine, to the victim by an accomplice stewardess.

Assegaf quoted the prosecutors as saying: "Pollycarpus knew for certain that Munir would not drink wine and would choose the orange juice and the orange juice had poison in it."

Munir was a pious Muslim.

Assegaf said his client would face a charge of premeditated murder.

A government-sanctioned team investigating Munir's death had said it found indications of involvement by the state intelligence agency.

Intelligence agency

The team said it had evidence that Priyanto was in frequent telephone contact with several members of the intelligence agency before and after Munir's death.

Apart from Priyanto, police had also detained two Garuda cabin crew who served food to the activist. The two were also suspects.

Rights activists had long suspected Priyanto of being an intelligence agent.

The intelligence agency's former chief, retired general Abdullah Hendropriyono, had denied involvement in any plot to murder Munir.

Munir, 38, was a dynamic activist who began work in the 1990s, providing legal counsel for victims of officially sanctioned violence and repression during president Suharto's 32-year rule that ended in 1998.

- AFP