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Kontras demand government declassify Munir case

Jakarta Post - April 29, 2016

Omah Munir's human rights module for schools – Jakarta Post. February 21, 2016
Government urged to renew probe into Munir's death – Jakarta Post. September 7, 2015
Court upholds Pollycarpus release – Jakarta Post. July 30, 2015
The Hague dedicates street name to slain rights defender Munir – Jakarta Globe. April 14, 2015
Munir street in The Hague reminder of murder – Jakarta Post. April 12, 2015

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) reported the State Secretary to the Central Information Commission (KIP) Thursday following the former's rejection to disclose the investigation refusal on the death of human rights champion Munir Said Thalib.

On February, Kontras, along with Munir's widow Suciwati, requested the State Secretary to unveil the summary report on the government's investigation into Munir's tragic death, but to no avail.

"We lodged the request in order to make the President [Joko "Jokowi" Widodo] reveal the investigation results," Kontras civil and political rights division member Satrio Wirataru told The Jakarta Post after filing the request at the information commission's headquarters in Central Jakarta. "The State Secretary said that it could not find the summary report in its archive," he said.

Munir died from arsenic poisoning on Sept. 7, 2004, during a Garuda Indonesia flight to the Netherlands. In late 2004, a fact-finding team was established by then President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to investigate the case, which was touted as "a test of our history" by Yudhoyono himself.

Authorities have failed to find the mastermind behind the murder, as the courts sentenced only two perpetrators, Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto and former Garuda president Indra Setiawan, to 20 years and 12 years prison, respectively.

In 2014, Pollycarpus was released on parole by Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly after the former accumulated a large number of sentence-remissions during his imprisonment. After the decision, calls mounted for Jokowi to open Munir's case and other unresolved human rights abuses in the country.

Satrio said that a 2004 presidential decree on the establishment of the fact-finding team stipulates the President's obligation to unveil the report after being submitted by the team. "The team conveyed its inquiry to the government on May 2005, but nothing has been heard until now," he said.

The procedures on information about a case settlement stipulates that the KIP has to decide whether a case should go to mediation after questioning the conflicting parties in a hearing. The information commission should then conduct an adjudication hearing, similar to a criminal court hearing, providing the mediation fails.

KIP chairman Abdul Hamid Dipopramono said that it was everybody's right to file a public information case disclosure with the commission as stipulated in Article 28F of the Constitution. "We will decide whether the plaintiff has met the legal standing to file the request," Abdul told the Post in a telephone interview. (mos)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/29/kontras-demand-govt-declassify-munir-case.html.