APSN | Jokowi urged to set up new fact-finding team on Munir's death

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Jokowi urged to set up new fact-finding team on Munir's death

Jakarta Post - October 20, 2016

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Marguerite Afra Sapiie, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo should set up a new fact-finding team to investigate individuals allegedly involved in the murder of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib, as alleged in a 2005 investigative document on his murder case, a rights watchdog has said.

Imparsial director Al-Araf said even though the State Secretariat had claimed it did not know where the document was, there was no doubt that Jokowi and his administration officials knew about the result of the investigation conducted by a government-commissioned fact-finding team established in 2004 to solve the case. This was especially because the report had been widely circulated in public, he went on.

As reported earlier, the Central Information Commission (KIP) has called on the government to publish the report, which has remained under wraps for 12 years.

Al-Araf said Jokowi should use the opportunity to fulfill his promise and use the report as the first step toward finding the real perpetrators of Munir's murder.

"The report named several persons who should be further investigated. He [Jokowi] should form another fact-finding team or at least a team under the National Police to investigate the persons mentioned in the document, who remain untroubled by the legal process," Al-Araf told journalists on Wednesday.

He further said Jokowi should also order Attorney General HM Prasetyo to file for a review of Munir's murder case at the Supreme Court, given that the 2005 document also revealed new evidence the government could use to take such a measure, Al-Araf said.

The fact-finding team, formed by former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2004, identified the alleged role of State Intelligence Agency (BIN) officials in the case, including BIN deputy head Muchdi Purwoprandjono and spy chief Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono.

Muchdi was acquitted of all charges in 2011. The report revealed Hendropriyono was found to have exchanged telephone calls with Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, a former Garuda pilot who was found guilty of killing Munir, around the time of the murder. Hendropriyono has repeatedly denied any role in orchestrating the arsenic poisoning of Munir on a Garuda Indonesia flight to the Netherlands. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/10/20/jokowi-urged-to-set-up-new-fact-finding-team-on-munirs-death.html.