JAKARTA (AFP) — Indonesian police were preparing to charge a former spy Friday over the murder of a rights activist in 2004, in what is seen as a crucial test case for the rule of law after the Suharto era.
It is the first time anyone from the intelligence agency has been formally declared a suspect over the poisoning murder of well-known human rights activist Munir Said Thalib, police said.
Muchdi Purwopranjono, an ex-deputy chief of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), turned himself in to police in Jakarta late Thursday and is expected to be charged with premeditated murder, senior detective Bambang Hendarso said.
The crime is punishable by death or a minimum of 20 years in prison.
Former Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Priyanto was jailed for 20 years in January for poisoning the activist with arsenic during a journey on the flag carrier from Jakarta to Amsterdam via Singapore.
Garuda's ex-boss, Indra Setiawan, was also jailed for one year as an accessory for helping with the plot.
But Purwopranjono is the first intelligence agent to face charges in a case that many believe goes to the top of the murky internal security apparatus that survived the end of Suharto's iron-fisted military-led rule in 1998.
The case is seen as a test of how far the Indonesian government, under its post-Suharto mantra of "Reformasi" or reform, has managed to clean up the security agencies and bring them under democratic, civilian rule.
Purwopranjono's lawyer told reporters his client was cooperating with police even though he was not involved in the murder plot and did not even know jailed pilot Priyanto.
Rights activists have long accused top officials in the BIN of organising the murder to stop Munir's work to provide legal counsel to victims of state violence under Suharto.
The 38-year-old Munir was also an outspoken critic of the powerful military and worked on cases involving rights activists who had disappeared under Suharto's rule.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, an ex-general who became Indonesia's first directly elected head of state in 2004, promised to leave no stone unturned in the search for the "mastermind" of Munir's killing.
"The president has ordered all government bodies to cooperate to help reveal the mastermind, whoever and wherever he comes from," presidential spokesman Andi Malarangeng was quoted as saying by Okezone news website.
Munir, chief of the Kontras rights group, was poisoned eight to nine hours before dying on the Singapore-Amsterdam leg of the flight.
Rights activists and Munir's widow, Suciwati, said the plot went higher than Purwopranjono.
"The most important thing that we need to understand is that Muchdi is not the planner or the one who gave the order," Suciwati told AFP.
"There must be another person who had the ultimate power to order the murder. I hope the police will question the intelligence agency's former chief, Hendropriyono," she added.
The agency has denied the accusations and blocked attempts to question senior officials.
"There must be another actor that played a principal role, but this arrest is important to uncover the motive for Munir's murder," said Usman Hamid, the current head of Kontras.
"This is related to the role of the BIN chief (Hendropriyono), who has never been questioned," he said, adding that authorities had asked him to give evidence but he had refused.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla urged patience with the ongoing investigation.
"Let's count on the legal process," he said.
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