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Munir murder investigation put on ice until missing documents are found: Chief security minister

Jakarta Globe - October 26, 2016

Jakarta – The government will wait until missing investigation documents on the murder of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib are found and handed over to the Attorney General's Office before deciding whether or not to continue investigation into the case.

The files – which were submitted to former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, or SBY, by an independent fact-finding team in 2005 – were found to be missing earlier this month after the Central Information Commission ordered the State Secretariat to make the documents public in response to a lawsuit filed by the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) – where Munir used to work.

The State Secretariat claimed the files are not stored at its headquarters, prompting allegations that the files were deliberately misplaced when SBY was still in office.

SBY denied the allegations, saying he is more than willing to help President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo solve the murder by providing copies of the documents to the Palace.

Chief Security Minister Wiranto said the government will study the documents before taking further steps on the case, including whether or not to continue the investigation.

"The documents contain data and information that will be studied by the AGO. We will wait for them to examine and analyze the case," Wiranto told a press briefing at the "Two Years of Jokowi-Kalla Administration" event in Jakarta on Wednesday (26/10).

Presidential spokesman Johan Budi said the fact-finding team's documents have to contain new pieces of evidence if the murder investigation is to continue. Nevertheless, Johan said Jokowi still intends to solve the murder according to the law.

Activists have long demanded that the government find Munir's real killer. The activist was poisoned with arsenic during a brief layover in Singapore in 2004 before boarding a flight to Amsterdam.

Former pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto was sentenced to 14 years in prison for premeditated murder in the case, but the alleged masterminds behind his murder remain unknown. The results of the investigation by the fact-finding team have never been made public.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/munir-murder-investigation-put-ice-missing-documents-found-chief-security-minister/.

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